Galatians 5:1

Gal_5:1-12. Exhortation to stand fast in the Liberty of the Gospel

1. Many editors place this verse at the end of ch. 4, connecting it immediately with Gal_4:31 of that chapter; ‘we are not children of a bondwoman, but of her who is free with that freedom wherewith Christ hath emancipated us. Stand fast therefore and be not again entangled with a yoke of bondage’.

But the received arrangement of the chapters is better. Chapter 4 is didactic; chapter 5 is hortatory, and therefore properly begins with the injunction ‘stand fast’.

It is however interesting to note that in the original the last word of ch. 4 is ‘free’, and ‘the freedom’ are the opening words of ch. 5. We have a similar instance of the repetition of a word in juxtaposition in Rom_15:12-13, ‘In Him shall the Gentiles hope. Now the God of hope fill you … that ye may abound in hope’.

Here we may render, In the freedom then wherewith Christ made us free stand fast &c. The freedom thus bestowed is spiritual liberty which is quite independent of outward circumstances. St Paul in chains, a prisoner in Rome, exulted in it. Nero on his throne, the master of the world, with thirty legions at his back, was the miserable slave of his lusts. Luther beautifully remarks: ‘Let us learn to count this our freedom most noble, exalted, and precious, which no emperor, no prophet nor patriarch, no angel from heaven, but Christ, God’s Son, hath obtained for us; not that He might relieve us from a bodily and temporal subjection, but from a spiritual and eternal imprisonment of the cruelest tyrants, namely the law, sin, death, the Devil’.

Stand fast] perhaps, ‘stand upright’, not bowing your neck to the yoke of legal observances.

again] They who had escaped from the thraldom of heathenism were not to submit to the slavery of Judaism. They who had once tasted freedom in Christ were not to be again entangled in the bondage of the law.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gal_5:1

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us freer and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

The freedom of the Christian

It is necessary that we first see generally what that liberty is, wherewith Christ maketh His people free. I cannot hold any one free, so long as his own conscience locks him up into the fear of death and punishment. The mind which has places which it is afraid to touch, can never expatiate every where; and the mind which cannot go anywhere, never is free. It is the sense of pardon which is that mans emancipation. Have we not all felt the difference.

to work that we may be loved, and to work because we are loved; to have a motive from without, or to have a motive from within; to be guided by a fear, or to be attracted by an affection? But, again, to obey any one isolated law, however good that law may be, and however we may admire and love the Lawgiver, may still carry with it a sense of confining and contraction. To do, not this or that command, but the whole will, because it is the will of one we love--to have caught His mind, to breathe His spirit, to be bound up with His glory--that has in it no littleness; there are no circumscribing confines there; and these are the goings out of the unshackled being in the ranges which match with his own infinity. And yet once more. Such is the soul of man, that all that in his horizon falls within the compass of time, however long--or of a present life however full--that mans circle being small, compared to his own consciousness of his own capability, through that disproportion, he feels a limitation. But let a man once look, as he may, and as he must, on that great world which lies beyond him as his scope and his home, and all that is here as only the discipline and the school-work by which he is in training, and immediately everything contains in it eternity. And very free will that man be among the dead, because his faith is going out above the smallnesses which surround him, to the great, and to the absorbing, and to the satisfying things to come. It will not be difficult to carry out these principles, and apply them to the right performance of any of the obligations of life. It needs no words to show that whatever is done in this freedom will not only be itself better done, but it takes from that freedom a character which comports well with a member of the family of God; and which at once makes it edifying to Him, and acceptable and honouring to a heavenly Father. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

Spiritual freedom

What is liberty? Obedience to ones self; obedience to a law which is written in a mans own heart. If I obey myself, and myself is not a right self, it is, indeed, liberty, but being a bad liberty, it becomes licentiousness. It is compulsion; it is bondage. Liberty is when the outer law and the inner law are the same; and both are good.

1. Every one has a past which fetters him. The moment a man really believes, and accepts his pardon, he is cut off from all his sinful past! He is at liberty--free from his own bitter history--free from himself!

2. Now look to the liberty from the present. If I have received. Christ into my heart, I am a pardoned man, I am a happy man, and I know and feel that I owe all my happiness to Him--therefore I love Him; I cannot choose but love Him; and my first desire is to please Him; to follow Him; to be like Him; to be with Him. My life is to become a life of love. In obeying God, I obey myself. The new life and the new heart are in accord.

3. And what of the future? A vista running up to glory! But are there no dark places? Chiefly in the anticipation. When they come, they will bring their own escapes and their own balances. He has undertaken for me in everything. He will never leave me. So I am quite free from all my future. To die will be a very little thing. The grave cannot hold me. He has been through, and opened the door the other side. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

Christian liberty

I. The liberty of the subjects that are freed. Christian liberty stands--

1. In immunity from evil.

(1) From that which is evil in itself. Satan; sin

(a) in the fault,

(b) in the punishment--whether the inward slavery of an accusing conscience or outward wrath of God, death, and damnation.

(2) From that which is evil to us, as

(a) burdensome traditions,

(b) the law, either ceremonial or moral, as regards either the obligation or the curse.

2. Less than this is bondage, more than this is looseness.

II. The prerogative of the King of Glory that hath freed them.

1. They could not free themselves.

2. Angels could not free them.

3. Only Christ could, whose ransom was infinite.

4. Only Christ has, whose love is infinite. How?

(1) By force; in that He hath conquered him whose captives we were.

(2) By purchase; in that He hath paid the full price to him to whom we were forfeited. We could not be free by birth since we were sons of wrath; nor by service since we were vassals of Satan.

5. Christ has freed us from seven Egyptian masters.

(1) The bondage of sin by the Spirit of Christ (Rom_6:12; Rom_7:14; 2Pe_2:19; Rom_7:24-25; 2Co_3:17).

(2) An accusing conscience by the blood of Christ (Heb_10:19; Heb_10:22).

(3) The wrath of God by faith in Christ (Heb_10:27; Rom_5:1).

(4) The tyranny of Satan by the victory of Christ (2Ti_2:26; Heb_2:14).

(5) The curse of the law by the satisfaction of Christ (Gal_3:10; Gal_3:13).

(6) The law of ceremonies by the consummation of Christ (Rom_8:2; Eph_2:14-16).

(7) Human ordinances by the manumission and instruction of Christ (Gal_4:10-11; 1Co_7:23).

III. The maintenance of the liberty which the power of that great prerogative hath achieved.

1. How strange that such an exhortation should be necessary. In the case of a liberated bird or an emancipated slave it would be superfluous.

2. Yet facts prove it necessary in the case of Christs freemen. (Bishop Hall.)

Christian believers exhorted to the maintenance of their spiritual liberty

I. This exhortation implies--

1. That attempts will be made to deprive us of this liberty. This is discovered soon after its first enjoyment.

(1) By Satan and sin.

(2) By companions.

(3) By pleasure.

(4) By persecution.

(5) By deceivers who attempt to undermine the doctrine on which salvation rests.

2. The awful possibility of losing this liberty, as testified

(1) by Scripture;

(2) by the history of the Church;

(3) by observation;

(4) by experience.

3. That there is no necessity to lose this liberty. When lost it is most frequently by

(1) a culpable ignorance of spiritual duties and privileges;

(2) a presumptuous self-confidence leading to unwatchfulness;

(3) a weak and wicked self-indulgence.

4. Yet while there is no necessity to forfeit their liberty, Christians are exposed to great and peculiar dangers

(1) from constitution and temperament;

(2) circumstances;

(3) difficulties and sorrows;

(4) spiritual exercises.

II. The duties in the observance of which spiritual freedom may be maintained.

1. The devotional reading of Scripture day by day in connection with religious biography and kindred works.

2. A regular and conscientious attention to private prayer.

3. A spirit of watchfulness.

4. Constant self-denial.

5. Unceasing cultivation of holiness. In conclusion:

Remember--

1. The price paid for your redemption.

2. The wretched state of the re-enslaved believer. (H. H. Chettle.)

Christian freedom

I. In the voluntary service of God (Luk_1:74; 1Ti_1:9).

II. In the free use of the creatures of God (Tit_1:15; Rom_14:14).

III. To come unto God through Christ in prayer. (Rom_5:2; Eph_3:12).

IV. To enter heaven (Heb_10:19). (W. Perkins.)

Liberty not lawlessness

Liberty is harmony between the law and the nature and inclinations of its subjects. Law is essential to freedom, but freedom requires that the law shall be such as comports with the best interests and highest reason of those who have to obey it; for then their best desires will concur with their obligations, and, wishing to do only what the law requires them to do, they will be conscious of no restraint. (Newman Hall.)

Spiritual and related freedoms

Let me remind you of the arrangement of the ancient temple. In the centre was the sanctuary, with the altar of sacrifice before it, and the altar of incense within; and beyond the veil, the Holy of Holies and the mercy seat. Here worship was offered, atonement made, the presence of God manifested. Let this represent liberty-spiritual--the union of the soul with its Maker. Beyond the sanctuary and enclosing it, was the Court of the Jews, through which access was obtained to the inner shrine. Let this represent liberty-doctrinal--that revealed truth by which the soul obtains admission into the liberty of Gods children. Beyond was the Court of the Gentiles--further from the Holy of Holies--but connected with it, surrounding and defending it. Let this represent liberty-ecclesiastical, by which doctrinal truth is best conserved and thus spiritual liberty best attained. Beyond all these were the outer walls and gates, and the lofty rock on which it was upreared. Let this represent liberty national, by which ecclesiastical freedom is guaranteed. (Newman Hall.)

Freedom and slavery

Know that to be free is the same thing as to be pious, to be wise, to be temperate and fast, to be frugal and abstinent, and, lastly, to be magnanimous and brave; so to be the opposite of all these is the same as to be a slave; and it usually happens that that people who cannot govern themselves, are delivered up to the sway of those whom they abhor, and made to submit to an involuntary servitude. (Milton.)

The souls rebellion against its thraldom

As the lark, imprisoned since it burst its shell, though it has never sprung upward to salute the rising sun, will often manifest how cruel is its captivity by instinctively spreading its wings and darting upward, as if to soar, but only beats its head against the wires and falls back on its narrow perch; so the soul of man, designed to soar and utter its raptures in the rays of the great central sun, will sometimes, even in its cage, attempt to rise and breathe a loftier atmosphere, but falls back vainly struggling against the bars which sin and death have framed around it. (Newman Hall.)

Standing fast in liberty

The phrase alludes to the duties of soldiers on military service. When marshalled in the ranks they must stand firm, without yielding their ground, without bending their knees; when placed as sentinels they must stand upon their guard and permit no enemy to surprise them. You are soldiers of Christ, and must stand fast--be valiant for the truth--and look to yourselves. (H. H. Chettle.)

Liberty from law unconscious obedience

No man has reached liberty until he has learned to obey with such facility and perfection that he does it without knowing it, If I step upon a little bit of plank in the street I walk along over it without thinking. Although it is only four inches wide I can walk on it as well as I can on the rest of the pavement. But put that plank between two towers one hundred feet high in the air and let me be called to walk over it. I begin to think, of course, of what I am called upon to do. And the moment I begin to think I cannot do it. When you try to do a thing you cannot do it as well as when you do it without trying. (H. W. Beecher.)

Christian liberty

The apostle now enters upon the more practical part of the Epistle. Freedom is the link which connects the two parts together.

I. Christian liberty is the liberty of faith. Faith receives the truth, the whole truth, concerning sin and redemption; and it is the truth, believed, that makes men free.

II. Christian liberty is the liberty of hope.

1. A hope which maketh not ashamed, for it is based on Christs accomplished work.

2. A hope which patiently waits for that which it knows it will assuredly possess.

III. Christian liberty is the liberty of love. The Saviours love to the sinner draws the sinners love to Himself.

IV. Christian liberty is the liberty of holiness. The safeguards of political liberty lie not in the laws which regulate, or the armies which defend it, but in the spirit which animates a people, in their respect for law, in their mutual toleration, in their recognition of others rights, and, above all, in their hearty devotion to the government under which they live. Where these prevail, a nation is already free, and a liberty so founded will never degenerate into license. So also Christian liberty is best secured from abuse, not by the threat of penalties, or by an appeal to fear, but by the operation of those principles which lie at the foundation of Christian character. The gospel sets man free from a bondage beneath which a loving obedience is impossible, in order that, being free, he may serve God in the spirit of Christian liberty. (Emilius Bayley, B. D.)

Spiritual liberty

Spiritual liberty consists in freedom from the curse of the moral law; from the servitude of the ritual; from the love, power, and guilt of sin; from the dominion of Satan; from the corruption of the world; from the fear of death and the wrath to come. (C. Buck.)

Christian liberty

The liberty wherewith Christ has made men free is a deliverance from a system of rules, positive and prohibitory--a temporary and provisional system which had an educational value, training men to the full privileges of religious manhood. It is an abdication of privilege, when men fall back upon the old standpoint of Judaism, and fence themselves in by rigid rules as if of primary importance. There is a perpetual tendency to make men subject to ordinances, whose language is, Touch not, taste not, handle not, after the commandments and ordinances of men; and not only to adopt these precepts as useful helps for their own moral progress, but to impose them upon others, almost as if they were of Divine origin; and to make them the standard of their judgment upon the spiritual condition of their fellow men. Every school of religious thought exhibits proofs of this temptation to represent as commandments of God, precepts of mans own devising. This Judaising temper displays itself whenever men try to narrow down eternal principles of conduct into minute rules, which can prefer no higher claim than to be deemed useful to some, whilst they may be positively injurious to others In vindicating the freedom brought to us by the gospel, we throw ourselves back on the primary truths of Christianity--the Fatherhood of God, and the reconciliation wrought out by the atoning work of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God. Fully believing that God is a righteous Judge, we shall yet not feel towards Him as if He were a hard taskmaster or rigid lawgiver, but as the Infinite Being whose love first created us, and subsequently devised our redemption; we shall exercise an unreserved faith in the completeness of the sacrifice for sin which has been made by our Saviour, and the present forgiveness which has been obtained for us; and we shall rejoice in the glorious liberty of the children of God. But this sense of liberty will not degenerate into licentiousness and unrestrained self-indulgence. Because we are not under the law, but under grace, we shall see ourselves called to a higher and nobler type of holiness. We shall certainly not be without law to God. Our religion will be displayed, not in a punctilious attention to external rules, but in a life-giving spirit, which will penetrate into every department of action in relation to others. In daily society it will impart a kindliness, a charity, a justice, in cur estimate of the words and conduct of those around us; it will teach us a Divine tolerance and a modest humility. It will make the best of both worlds, not in the low commercial sense, which tries to strike a balance between the claims of secular expediency and devotion to the service of God, but in the spirit of the apostolic exhortation which bids men use this world as not abusing it. Spite of all the manifold temptations on the plea of piety, or on the plea of the necessary subordination of the individual to the society, it will firmly refuse to descend to a lower level of Christianity than that which Christ its Founder intended. It will uphold the banner of freedom by maintaining, alike in theory and in practice, that Christianity is not in its essence a system of doctrine or a code of precepts, but a life and a spirit, a communion with God in Christ, manifesting itself in the power of true godliness. (Canon Ince.)

Personal liberty of the Christian

The doctrine of St. Paul is not that a Christian man has a right to liberty in conduct, thought, and speech in and of himself, without regard to external circumstances, interests, organizations, and without reference to his own condition. Pauls conception of the rights and liberties of men stands on the philosophical ground underneath all those things. Rights and liberties belong to stages or states of condition. The inferior has not the right of the superior. A stupid man has not the right of an educated or intelligent man. He may have the legal rights; but the higher ones, that spring out of the condition of the soul, must stand on the conditions to which they belong. A. refined man has rights and joys that an unrefined man has not and cannot have, because he cannot understand them, does not want them, could not use them. Rights increase as the man increases--increases, that is, not merely in physical stature, or in skill of manual employment or material strength, but in character. So, as men work up higher and higher towards the Divine standard of character, their rights and liberties increase. The direct influence of Christ is to bring the human mind into its highest elements:. The power of the Divine nature upon the human soul is to lift it steadily away from animalism or from the flesh--the under-man--up through the realm of mere material wisdom and accomplishment, in the direction of soul-power, reason, rectitude--such reason and such rectitude as grow up under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. When love has permeated the whole man, he then has perfect liberty--liberty of thought, liberty of speech, liberty of conduct. A perfect Christian is the one and only creature that has absolute liberty unchecked by law, by institution, by foregoing thoughts of men, by public sentiment. Because a perfect man is in unison with the Divine soul, he has the whole liberty of God in himself, according to the measure of his manhood. But he has liberty to do only what he wants to do, and he wants to do nothing that is not within the bounds and benefit of a pure and true love. He becomes a law to himself; that is, he carries in himself that inspiration of love which is the mother of all good law. He is higher than any law. His will is with Gods will. He thinks what is true; he does what is benevolent. (H. W. Beecher.)

Christian liberty a trust

When a man is in slavery he is not his own master; he acts and lives under the direction of others, and the responsibility of life is in a greater or less degree shifted from him on to some one else. When a man becomes free, he assumes the duties of life, and recognizes that it rests only with himself whether those duties are performed or not. And so man living under the Christian covenant stands in a direct personal relation to God, a relation of trust. Gifted with freewill, he is answerable for his conduct; subjected no longer to the ordinances of the Mosaic Law, he claims the liberty of the gospel; but he dares not forget that there still is a law limiting and controlling the freedom which he enjoys, and that every action of his carries responsibility with it. The soul of the old law is enshrined and quickened in the body of the new. The spirit, not the letter, of Sinai is met with again in the Sermon on the Mount. All Christian duties are summed up there and enforced with the authority of One who taught not as the scribes and Pharisees, and who spake as never man spake (Mat_22:37-40). Our liberty is a limited one. No man can do as he likes. He has a Master in heaven whom he must serve. He is indeed set free by the death of Christ from the ordinances of the old covenant, and he is no longer a slave; but he has been placed in a society which is governed by laws eternal in their force, and the measure of the liberty he enjoys is the good of his own soul and the well-being of his brothers, for none of us liveth to him-self, and no man dieth to himself As Christian members in the commonwealth of Christ we possess, indeed, in its highest and holiest sense, the triple right of liberty, fraternity, equality; but the religion to which we belong is neither reactionary nor revolutionary, and our liberty must be controlled, our equality sanctified, and our fraternity blessed, by the Holy Spirit of God. (C. W. H. Kenrick, M. A.)

Stand fast

Brethren, I cannot be of any other faith than that which I preached nearly twenty-nine years ago on this platform. I am to-day what I was then. That which I preached here then I preach here now. You know the story of the boy who stood on the burning deck because his father said, Stand there, and he could not come away. Other boys, much wiser than he was, had gone and got out of the mischief. I am standing where I stood then; I cannot help it, so help me God. I know no more to-day than I knew when first I believed in Jesus as to this matter. I know by grace. Are ye saved through faith and that not of yourself--it is the gift of God? You shall leave this :Rock if you like; you may be able to swim; I cannot, and so I stop here; and when the crack of doom shall come I shall be here, God helping me, believing this self-same doctrine. There is something in our very adhesiveness and pertinacity which represents the spirit of the gospel. I am sure that steadfastness in these particular times has its value, and I urge you,, to it that the gospel which you have received, the gospel of the grace of God, you stand fast to as long as you live. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The secret of steadfastness

Standing on the shore of an estuary, one sees a boat riding in the tideway, when sea-weed and other things float by, over the self-same spot; and whether the tide ebbs or flows, whether it steals quietly in or comes on with the rush and roar of foaming billows, the boat always boldly shows its face to it; and turning its head to the current receives on its bows, to split them, the shock of waves. This, which to a child would seem strange, is due to the anchor that lies below the waters, and, grasping the solid ground with its iron arms, holds fast the boat. It seems no less wonderful to see a tree--no sturdy oak, but slender birch, or trembling aspen--standing erect away up on a mountain brow; where, exposed to the sweep of every storm, it has gallantly maintained its ground against the tempests that have laid in the dust the stateliest ornaments of the plain. But our wonder ceases so soon as we climb the height, and see wherein its great strength lies; how it has struck its roots down into the mountain, and wrapped them with many a strong twist and turn round and round the rock. (W. Arnot.)

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Stand fast

1. In Christ to whom you have been brought.

2. In adherence to the doctrines which the gospel has set before you.

3. You will find your strength and dependence only in the grace of Christ.

4. In the service of your Master to the end. (J. Harding, M. A.)

The bounds of Christian freedom

When we speak of freedom, we are apt to think only of the removal of restraints. But though it is important to get rid of all needless restraints, it is much more important that we should possess and train the powers for which the absence of restraint is demanded. If there is no life, the removal of restraints will be of no use. If the life is feeble, and tied down by inward restraints like those of superstition or of fear, the removal of outward restraints will not set it free. But if there is vigorous life, it demands for its development a constantly expanding freedom: and this spiritual power has in itself both its proper energy and its proper bound. It is a tree which has an innate capacity of growth. Give it air and light; remove whatever confines and overshadows it. It may need pruning and guiding; but it can provide its own symmetry for itself. I do not propose to dwell verse by verse upon the passage (Gal_4:1-16) which I have taken for a starting point, but to illustrate and enforce its central principle. Wherever there is a just demand for freedom, it is because there exists a living power to be liberated; and this living power, if it be kept pure, contains in itself the true limit of its exercise. First, take the revival of Christian liberty at the time of the Reformation. Luthers first great treatise was Concerning Christian Liberty. The liberty he claims presupposes the establishment in the soul of the Divine life of faith. You do not work, he says again and again, so that you may live. Life comes first; works, afterwards. The fruit will never make the root or the sap, but the root and the sap ensure the fruit. But, since this Divine life of faith exists, he demands that it should be free from the fetters of the clerical system of the Middle Ages. But let us come to more commonplace examples of freedom; we shall still find that it is the growth of the inner life or capacity which determines and controls the external conditions. Take the familiar case of a boy who wants to leave school and go to sea. If his father is wise, he will watch carefully, and try to estimate the meaning of this wish. Is it mere unruliness or restlessness, or dislike of study? If so, he will give it no encouragement. But, if he finds the boy in his leisure moments reading about the sea, and haunting about the seashore, and studying intelligently the boats and sails and machinery, after a time he will begin to recognize in the boy such a bent as indicates a genuine call. And when this is so, he may assure himself that the freedom will not be abused. The boy will be free from the constraints of the shore life; but that very zest for seamanship which has won its freedom will be most likely to ensure the right use of that freedom. There is a fine expression in the speech in which Pericles contrasted the free system of Athenian life, the trustful spirit of liberty, with the narrower system of Sparta. It might be thought that, unless such constraints as those imposed at Sparta existed, each man would try to impose his own will or tastes upon others. But the contrary, Pericles declared, was the case at Athens; each man respected the feelings of his neighbour. The slavish system is that of mistrust. Mutual confidence is the offspring of freedom. We might illustrate this by the experience of two great English schools some sixty years ago. When Keate was head-master of Eton, his system of discipline was one of terrorism. He never took a boys word, and, on the suspicion of a fault, he flogged him. At the same period, Arnold was head-master at Rugby. He always believed a boy; and it was only on rare occasions, when the proof was indubitable, that he punished. It might have been supposed that, under the severer system, boys would be afraid to do wrong, and that they would take advantage of the more lenient system to deceive. The contrary was the case. At Eton, under Keate, it; was thought quite fair to deceive a master. At Rugby, boys said, It is a shame to tell Arnold a lie, he always believes you. Thus freedom and trustfulness beget the sense of responsibility. To conclude: We have spoken of freedom first as an inward and spiritual state, secondly as the removal of outward restraints. The first of these is the most important. To the attainment of this we must constantly attend, both for ourselves and for those on whom we have any influence. There are tyrannies which have nothing to do with physical restraints, and against these we must war incessantly. There is the tyranny of evil habits. How can he he thought free who is the slave of customs which he knows to be wrong? There is the tyranny of fashion and opinion, and again of prejudice and party spirit. How can he be free who acts only as others choose? There is the tyranny of ignorance. How can he be called free whose life is bounded by a narrow circle of ideas? Let us strive for the sublime liberty which belongs to those who fear God and hate evil. (Canon Fremantle.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gal 5:1. Stand fast therefore in the liberty, &c. — The apostle (chap. 3.) having, from Abraham’s justification by faith, proved, 1st, That all who believe in Christ, and in the promises of God through him, are the seed of Abraham, whom God in the covenant promised to justify by faith: 2d, That the law of Moses, which was given long after the Abrahamic covenant, could neither annul nor alter that covenant, by introducing a method of justification different from that which was so solemnly established thereby: 3d, That men are heirs of the heavenly country, of which Canaan was the type, not meritoriously, by obedience to the law, but by the free gift of God: 4th, That the law was given to the Israelites, not to justify them, but to restrain them from transgressions, and by making them sensible of their sins, and of the demerit thereof, to lead them to Christ for justification: further, having (chap. 4.) observed that the method of justification by faith, established at the fall, was not universally published in the first ages, by immediately introducing the gospel, because the state of the world did not admit thereof; and because it was proper that mankind should remain a while under the tuition of the light of nature, and of the law of Moses: also, having declared that the supernatural procreation of Isaac, and his birth in a state of freedom, was intended to typify the supernatural generation of Abraham’s seed by faith, and their freedom from the bondage of the law of Moses, as a term of salvation: the apostle, in this 5th chapter, as the application of his whole doctrine, exhorts the Galatian believers to stand fast in that freedom from the Mosaic law which had been obtained for them by Christ, and was announced to them by the gospel; and not to be entangled again with, or held fast in, (as ενεχεσθε may be rendered,) the yoke of Jewish bondage, as if it were necessary to salvation. “The apostle, though writing to the Gentiles, might say, Be not again held fast in the yoke of bondage, because the law of Moses, which he was cautioning them to avoid, was a yoke of the same kind with that under which they had groaned while heathen. By this precept, the apostle likewise condemns the superstitious bodily services enjoined by the Church of Rome, which are really of the same nature with those prescribed by Moses, with this difference, that none of them are of divine appointment.” — Macknight.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

Gal_5:1. Stand fast in.—Stand up to, make your stand for. The liberty wherewith Christ has made as free.—As Christ has given you this liberty you are bound to stand fast in it. Be not entangled.—Implicated in a way which involves violence to true spontaneous life. The yoke of bondage.—Contrasted with the yoke of Christ, which is compatible with the fullest spiritual freedom.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Gal_5:1

Christian Liberty—

I. Should be valued considering how it was obtained.—“The liberty where, with Christ hath made us free.” It is a liberty purchased at a great cost. Christ, the Son of God, became incarnated, suffered in a degree unparalleled and incomprehensible, and died the shameful and ignoble death of the crucified to win back the liberty man had forfeited by voluntary sin. The redemption of man was hopeless from himself, and but for the intervention of a competent Redeemer he was involved in utter and irretrievable bondage. Civil liberty, though the inalienable right of every man, has been secured as the result of great struggle and suffering. “With a great sum,” said the Roman captain to Paul, “obtained I this freedom;” and many since his day have had to pay dearly for the common rights of citizenship. But Christian liberty should be valued as the choicest privilege, remembering it was purchased by the suffering Christ, and that it has been defended through the ages by a noble army of martyrs.

II. Should remind us of the oppression from which it delivers.—“And be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” The Galatians had been bondmen, enslaved by the worship of false and vile deities. If they rush into the snare of the legalists, they will be bondmen again, and their bondage will be the more oppressive now they have tasted the joys of freedom. Disobedience involves us in many entanglements. It is among the most potent of the energies of sin that it leads astray by blinding and blinds by leading astray; that the soul, like the strong champion of Israel, must have its eyes put out, when it would be bound with fetters of brass and condemned to grind in the prison-house (Jdg_16:21). Redemption from the slavery of sin should fill the heart with gratitude. A wealthy and kind Englishman once bought a poor negro for twenty pieces of gold. He presented him with a sum of money that he might buy a piece of land and furnish himself a home. “Am I really free? May I go whither I will?” cried the negro in the joy of his heart. “Well, let me be your slave, massa; you have redeemed me, and I owe all to you.” The gentleman took him into his service, and he never had a more faithful servant. How much more eagerly should we do homage and service to the divine Master, who Himself has made us free!

III. Should be rigorously maintained.—“Stand fast therefore.” The price of freedom is incessant vigilance; once gained it is a prize never to be lost, and no effort or sacrifice should be grudged in its defence. “As far as I am a Christian,” said Channing, “I am free. My religion lays on me not one chain. It does not hem me round with a mechanical ritual, does not enjoin forms, attitudes, and hours of prayer, does not descend to details of dress and food, does not put on me one outward badge. It teaches us to do good, but leaves us to devise for ourselves the means by which we may best serve mankind.” The spirit of Christian liberty is eternal. Jerusalem and Rome may strive to imprison it. They might as well seek to bind the winds of heaven. Its seat is the throne of Christ. It lives by the breath of His Spirit. Not to be courageous and faithful in its defence is disloyalty to Christ and treachery to our fellow-men.

Lessons.—

1. Christ is the true Emancipator of men.

2. Christian liberty does not violate but honours the law of love.

3. Liberty is best preserved by being consistently exercised.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE

Gal_5:1. Freedom from Bondage.—

1. Every man by nature is a bondslave, being under the bondage of sin. The Jews were under bondage to the ceremonial law, involving great trouble, pain in the flesh, and great expense.

2. Jesus Christ by His obedience and death has purchased freedom and liberty to His Church—liberty not to do evil, nor from the yoke of new obedience, nor from the cross, nor from that obedience and reverence which inferiors owe to superiors; but from the dominion of sin, the tyranny of Satan, the curse and irritating power of the law, and from subjecting our consciences to the rites, doctrines, ceremonies, and laws of men in the matter of worship.

3. Though civil liberty be much desired, so ignorant are we of the worth of freedom from spiritual bondage that we can hardly be excited to seek after it, or made to stand to it when attained, but are in daily hazard of preferring our former bondage to our present liberty.—Fergusson.

Bondage and Liberty.

I. We are in bondage under sin.

II. We are subject to punishment.—Implying:

1. Bondage under Satan, who keeps unrepentant sinners in his snare.

2. Bondage under an evil conscience, which sits in the heart as accuser and judge, and lies like a wild beast at a man’s door ready to pluck out his throat.

3. Bondage under the wrath of God and fear of eternal death.

III. We are in bondage to the ceremonial law.—To feel this bondage is a step out of it; not to feel it is to be plunged into it.

IV. We have spiritual liberty by the grace of God.—

1. Christian liberty is a deliverance from misery.

(1) From the curse of the law for the breach thereof.

(2) From the obligation of the law whereby it binds us to perfect righteousness in our own persons.

(3) From the observance of the ceremonial law of Moses.

(4) From the tyranny and dominion of sin.

2. Christian liberty is freedom in good things.

(1) In the voluntary service of God.

(2) In the free use of all the creatures of God.

(3) Liberty to come to God and in prayer to be heard.

(4) To enter heaven.

V. Christ is the great Liberator.—He procured this liberty:

1. By the merit of His death. The price paid—His precious blood—shows the excellence of the blessing, and that it should be esteemed.

2. By the efficacy of His Spirit—assuring us of our adoption, and abating the strength and power of sin.

VI. We are to hold fast our liberty in the day of trial.—

1. We must labour that religion be not only in mind and memory, but rooted in the heart.

2. We must join with our religion the soundness of a good conscience.

3. We must pray for all things needful.—Perkins.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

III. THE WALK OF THE JUSTIFIED BELIEVER,

AS NOT UNDER THE LAW, BUT UNDER GRACE

CHAPTER 5

1. Stand fast! Be not entangled! (Gal 5:1-6)

2. Exhortations and the law of love. (Gal 5:7-15)

3. Flesh and Spirit. (Gal 5:16-21)

4. The Fruit of the Spirit. (Gal 5:22-26)

The first exhortation is to maintain, by faith, the liberty which is found in Christ, to stand fast in that liberty where with Christ has made the believer free and not to be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. The believer has perfect liberty in Christ; he is absolutely dead to the law and the law is not to be used by him in any way. But Gal 5:13, where the apostle speaks again of this liberty, must be brought in connection with the opening statement of this chapter. “For, brethren, ye have been called into liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” The liberty the believer has in Christ is to be used for holiness. When God redeems from the curse of the law it is a redemption unto holiness, to live a righteous and holy life; the holy Spirit indwelling the believer does not give license to live after the flesh.

But as being in Christ, dead to the law, if they become circumcised Christ would profit them nothing and they were bound to fulfill the whole law. Going back to the law for righteousness, they had fallen from grace. This is the only time “fallen from grace” is used in the Bible. It has been strangely misapplied by a certain system of theology to deny the security of the believer in Christ. It is generally used to describe a Christian who has fallen in sin and, as it is claimed, lost his relationship as a child of God and is, therefore, once more under judgment. Falling from grace does not mean this; it means to give up the grace of the gospel in order to satisfy the requirements of the law. To go back under the law and its bondage is falling from grace. Gal 5:5 does not mean that a believer hopes for righteousness; he possesses righteousness by faith. Indwelt by the Spirit, the believer waits not for righteousness, but for the hope of righteousness by faith. And the hope of righteousness is the coming glory, when all those who are saved by grace will be glorified and be like Christ.

Then the earnest pleadings and warnings. They had run well; who hindered them? It was Satan who had led them astray. Once more leaven is used. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Even so it is today in Christendom. The leaven of a perverted gospel has well nigh leavened everything. He was deeply concerned about the spiritual condition of these Galatian Christians. But while he was in doubt about them and he was overwhelmed with grief because they abandoned grace, his heart, after all, was also in peace about them. “I have confidence in you through the Lord that ye will be now otherwise minded.” He cast them as his burden upon the Lord and he knew the Lord, who loveth His own, would after all bring it about that they would surely not be otherwise minded.

He who troubled them and bewitched them with that spurious gospel, whosoever he would be, would bear his judgment; and he wishes that these troublers were cut off. “And I, brethren, if I preach yet circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then is the offence of the cross ceased.” He had probably been charged by some of endorsing circumcision and preaching it. If such were the case, what further excuse was there for the Jews to persecute him? If he were still preaching circumcision the offence of the cross would have been done away. Circumcision stands for the religion of the natural man. The religious spirit of the natural man is always in opposition to the true gospel. Difficulties will cease and the world will even applaud the preaching if the religion of the flesh, the “do-religion” -- “observe” -- “keep” -- “reform”, etc., is proclaimed. Of this we see much today. The true gospel of grace, proclaimed upon the finished work of Christ, with nothing to do and nothing to pay, is still the same stumbling-block.

The believer possesses in Christ true liberty (Gal 5:13); a liberty, as already stated, not to sin, but to walk and serve God in holiness. It is the liberty of the new nature, the divine nature, which gives power over sin. The law seeks to constrain the old nature, which is impossible; but it is the mighty constraint of love, given by the Holy Spirit. And that love is the fulfillment of the law. The law, as a rule, for the believer’s life is, therefore, not needed. The gospel of grace sets the believer free and makes him happy in the assurance of God’s love and his own salvation; and the Holy Spirit is there. Under His guidance and power, walking in the Spirit, the lust of the flesh will not be fulfilled. And the believer, walking thus, has the blessed assurance that sin shall not have dominion over him. “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom 6:14). The law had not the power to do this, but grace has delivered us from the law of sin and death (Rom 8:1-4).

In the preceding part of the Epistle he had set forth Christian justification by faith, in contrast with works of the law. He here shows that God produces holiness. Instead of exacting it, as did the law with regard to human righteousness, from the nature which loves sin, He produces it in the human heart, as wrought by the Spirit.

“This life, produced in us by the operation of the Holy Spirit through the word, is led by the Spirit who is given to believers; its rule is also in the word. Its fruit is the fruit of the Spirit. The Christian walk is the manifestation of this new life, of Christ our life, in the midst of the world. If we follow this path--Christ Himself--if we walk in His steps, we shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. It is thus sin is avoided, not by taking the law to compel man to do what he does not like; the law has no power to compel the flesh to obey, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither, indeed, can be. The new life loves to obey, loves holiness, and Christ is its strength and wisdom by the Holy Spirit. The flesh is indeed there; it lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit lusts against the flesh, to prevent man from walking as he would. But if we walk in the Spirit, we are not under the law.” (Notes on Galatians--J. N. Darby)

The works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit are given in Gal 5:19-23. In a more literal rendering, the works of the flesh, sixteen in number, are as follows: Fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strifes, jealousies, angers, contentions, disputes, factions, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revels and things like these. Such is the old nature of man and such the fruit it bears. They that do such things, living according to the flesh, shall not inherit God’s kingdom. And only the power of the Spirit of God can deliver from the outworking of this fallen nature, the flesh, which is still in the believer. The Holy Spirit is in the child of God to manifest this power, but it means subjection to Himself.

The Spirit also produces His own blessed fruit in the life of the believer. The first three parts: Love, joy and peace. These give the blessed consciousness the believer has in his heart of his relationship to God, which consciousness comes through the Spirit. The other six parts: “long-suffering, kindness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, self-control,” witness in the believer’s walk to the fact that the love, the joy and peace of God are realities in the soul. The believer who walks according to the Spirit manifests in his walk the fruit of the indwelling Spirit and against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh and its lusts. They have accepted the sentence of the cross which has put the old man with its lusts into the place of death. God declares us as dead with Christ and looks upon us thus (Col 3:3). And this great truth must be lived. The believer lives in the Spirit and is called upon to walk in the Spirit so that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in him. “Let us not be desirous of vain-glory (the law fosters such a spirit, but grace humbles), provoking one another, envying one another”--which is the sad effect of vain-glory, provocation and envy.

Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5:1 Paul succinctly summarizes his message to the Galatians, decrying their foolish behavior and offering a positive alternative—freedom. • So Christ has truly set us free: Christians are free to walk by faith in Christ alone (cp. Rom 8). • don’t get tied up (literally don’t take on a yoke): In Judaism, it was a duty and an honor to “take the yoke of the law.” God’s children in Christ are not called to bear this heavy burden (see Luke 11:46; Acts 15:10); instead, they enjoy Christ’s yoke of freedom (Matt 11:28-30).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Gal 5:1. Τῇ ἐλευθερίᾳ—στήκετε, stand fast—in the liberty) The short clause, wherewith Christ has made us free, has the force of aetiology, or assigning the reason. Liberty, and slavery (bondage), are antithetic. It is without any connecting particle, Gal 3:13: τῇ ἐλευθερίᾳ, [by virtue of the] liberty, is emphatically put without ἐν, in: liberty itself confers the power of standing. Ἠλευθέρωσε signifies has rendered free, and ᾖ coheres with free [rather than with the rendered]: stand, erect, without a yoke.—πάλιν, again) ch. Gal 4:9, note.—ζυγῷ δουλείας, with the yoke of bondage) This expression is applied, not merely to the circumcision which was given to Abraham as the sign of the promise, but to circumcision as connected with the whole law, given long after on Mount Sinai, ch. Gal 4:24, Gal 3:17. For the Jews had been accustomed to look upon circumcision rather as a part of the law received by Moses, than as the sign of the promise given to Abraham, Joh 7:22. Nor was circumcision so much a yoke in itself, as it was made a yoke by the law; and the law itself was much more a yoke. Therefore Paul, by a weighty metonymy, puts the consequent for the antecedent: Be not circumcised, for he who is circumcised, along with this part of it, comes under the whole law, and revolts from Christ, Gal 5:2-4. Nor does the apostle oppose Christ so immediately to circumcision as he does to the law. He speaks according to their perverse custom, while he refutes their Galatism and Judaism; and yet he does not at all deviate from the truth. Peter also, Act 15:10, calls it a yoke.—ἐνέχεσθε) ἐνέχομαι, in the middle voice, I hold fast by, obstinately. That passage in Xiphil. in Epit. Dion. concerning a pole fixed in the ground, and which cannot be pulled out, shows the import of the word: ἐν τῇ γῇ ἐνέσχετο, ὥσπερ ἐμπεφυκώς, “it held a fast hold in the earth, as if it had grown there.”

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gal_5:1. Τῇ ἐλευθερίᾳ ἡμᾶς Χριστὸς ἠλευθέρωσεν] On this reading, see the critical notes. The sentence forms, with Gal_4:31, the basis of the exhortation which follows, στήκετε οὖν κ.τ.λ. See on Gal_4:31. For freedom, in order that we should be free and should remain so, that we should not again become subject to bondage, Christ has set us free (Gal_4:1-7), namely, from the bondage of the στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου (Gal_4:3). The dative τῇ ἐλευθ. is therefore commodi, not instrumenti. Comp. also Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 155; Holsten, Hofmann, Reithmayr. By so taking it, and by attending to the emphasis, which lies not on Χριστός, but on the τῇ ἐλευθερίᾳ following immediately after τῆς ἐλευθέρας in Gal_4:31, we obviate entirely the objection of Rückert (comp. Matthies and Olshausen) that Paul must have written: Χ. ἡμᾶς ἐλευθερὶᾳ ἠλευθέρωσεν, or εἰς ἐλευθ., or τῇ ἐλευθ. ταύτῃ, or ἣν ἔχομεν, or some other addition of the kind.

στήκετε οὖν] stand fast therefore, namely, in the freedom, which is to be inferred from what goes before; hence the absence of connection with τῇ ἐλευθ. does not produce any obscurity or abruptness (in opposition to Reiche). On the absolute στήκετε, which obtains its reference from the context, comp. 2Th_2:15.

καὶ μὴ πάλιν κ.τ.λ.] and be not again held in a yoke of bondage. Previously they had been (most of them) in the yoke of heathenism; now they were on the point of being held in the yoke of Mosaism (only another kind of the στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου). The yoke is conceived as laid on the neck: Act_15:10; Sir_51:26; Dem. 322. 12; Hom. H. Cer. 217. As to πάλιν, comp. on Gal_4:9. δουλείας denotes the characteristic quality belonging to the yoke. Comp. Soph. Aj. 924: πρὸς οἷα δουλείας ζυγὰ χωροῦμεν. Eur. Or. 1330; Plat. Legg. vi. p. 770 E: δούλειον ζυγόν, Ep. 8, p. 354 D; Dem. 322. 12; Herod. vii. 8.

ἐνέχεσθαι, with the dative (Dem. 1231. 15; 2Ma_5:18; 3Ma_6:10) or with ἐν (Dem. 1069. 9), is the proper expression for those who are held either in a physical (net or the like) or ethical (law, dogma, emotion, sin, or the like) restriction of liberty, so that they cannot get out. See Kypke in loc., and Markland ad Lys. V. p. 37, Reisk. Here, on account of the idea of a yoke, the reference is physical, but used as a figurative representation for that which is mental, which affects the conscience.

Note.

If we take the reading of the Recepta, and of Griesbach and his followers (see the critical notes), we must explain it: In respect of the freedom, [therefore], for which Christ has set us free, stand fast, and become not again, etc.!so that τῇ ἐλευθερίᾳ is to be taken like τῇ πίστει in 2Co_1:24 and Rom_4:20, and ᾗ as the dative commodi (Morus, Winer, Reiche). ᾗ might also (with the Vulgate, Luther, Beza, Calvin, Piscator, Rückert, Schott, Hilgenfeld, Wieseler, and many others) be taken as ablative (instrumentally): qua nos liberavit, after the analogy of the classical expressions ζῆν βίῳ, ὗσαι ὕδατι κ.τ.λ. (Bernhardy, p. 107; Lobeck, Paral, p. 523 ff.), and of the frequent use both in the LXX. and the N.T. (Winer, p. 434 [E. T. 584]) of cognate nouns in the dative. But this mode of expression does not occur elsewhere with Paul, not even in 1Th_3:9. According to Schott, Ewald, and Matthias, who join it to Gal_4:31 (see the critical notes), we get the meaning: We are not children of a bond-maid, but of the free woman through the freedom, with which Christ made us free; stand fast therefore. Thus τῇ ἐλευθερίᾳ ἧ ἡμᾶς Χριστ. ἠλευθ. becomes a self-evident appendage; and Χριστός receives an emphasis, just as in Gal_3:13, which its position does not warrant.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gal 5:1 . In the original text, which I have adopted in accordance with the best MS. authority, the first clause of this verse is clearly detached from the second στήκετε οὖν , and attached to the preceding ἀλλὰ τῆς ἐλευθέρας without any connecting particle. But this primary connection with the preceding verse was apparently obscured at an early period of Church history, owing probably to the frequent use of the important section Gal 5:1 ff. as a Church lesson by itself apart from the preceding allegory. It is difficult otherwise to account for the great variety of connecting particles employed in MS. versions and quotations to transform the fragment τῇ ἐλευθ . ἡμᾶς Χριστὸς ἠλευθ . into a complete sentence, e.g. , the addition of ᾖ , οὖν , or γάρ , and the omission of οὖν after στήκετε , all evidently corrections made with one object. The division of chapters has unfortunately perpetuated this error. But the removal of the full stop after ἐλευθέρας at once restores the full force of the original passage: Wherefore, brethren, we are not children of a handmaid, but Christ set us free with the freedom of the freewoman . The threefold iteration, free, freedom, freewoman , marks with expressive emphasis the importance of this Christian birthright. ἡμᾶς Χριστὸς . The best MSS. place the object ἡμᾶς before the subject Χριστός , inverting the usual order of words. This inversion throws an emphasis on ἡμᾶς , as the previous context demands; for the whole passage forcibly contrasts the freedom granted to us Christians with the bondage which the Jews inherit. μὴ πάλιν … Converts had all alike, whether Jews or Greeks, been under bondage to some law, human or divine: all had been set free by Christ, but might now, by the voluntary adoption of circumcision, forfeit this freedom and rivet the yoke of Law about their own necks.

Gal 4:31 to Gal 5:12 . Freedom is our birthright in Christ and an essential condition of our call. Accordingly the Apostle protests against the claim that all Christians should be circumcised, as a departure from the spirit of Christ, a dangerous innovation which the churches will certainly condemn, and a superstition of the flesh on a par with the grossest heathen superstitions.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21–5:1. Another appeal, based upon the principles underlying the history of Hagar and Sarah, and the birth of Isaac. Christ set us free; stand fast therefore in this freedom

(Gal 4:21) You wish to be under the Law? Listen then to the teaching of the Law itself, (Gal 4:22) For it stands written that in Abraham’s own children there was a difference, 1st of origin, one being by the bondservant and the other by the freewoman; 2ndly (Gal 4:23) in the circumstances of birth, the bondmaid’s son being born in accordance with the natural impulses of the flesh, the freewoman’s by means of promise. (Gal 4:24) Now things of this kind are written with more than their bare historical meaning. To take first the difference in the mothers. These are two Dispositions; one given forth from Mt Sinai, bearing children born into a state of spiritual bondage, (Gal 4:25) I mean Hagar—but the idea of Hagar suits Mt Sinai in distant and desert Arabia—but though distant it is in the same class as the present Jerusalem, for Jerusalem too is in bondage literal and spiritual with those who belong spiritually to her. (Gal 4:26) But (I do not say Sarah but rather what she represents) Jerusalem above is free—which is in fact the mother of us believers, (Gal 4:27) She, not the present and visible Jerusalem, is our mother, as the prophet has written: Rejoice, thou barren etc., for Sarah the desolate has more children than Hagar who had Abraham; the unseen Jerusalem has more than the seen. (Gal 4:28) I need only mention again the second point of difference, that we are also like Isaac in being children of promise. (Gal 4:29) But we are persecuted! Yes even as Isaac, who was born after the spirit, by him who was born after the flesh. (Gal 4:30) But Scripture says to us by way of encouragement and command: Cast out the handmaid and her son, for the son of the handmaid shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. (Remember this for your comfort, and act on it in your relation to the false teachers.) (Gal 4:31) Therefore, as a practical conclusion, we are not children of a bondmaid but of the freewoman! (Gal 4:1) For freedom (nothing less) Christ set us free! Stand fast therefore and do not again be held in the yoke of bondage.

1. τῇ ἐλενθερίᾳ אABC*DG. οὖν is added in Text. Rec. with CcKL etc. γὰρ is inserted after τῇ by Bohairic Chrys. ᾖ is read instead of τῇ by G vulg. Tert. Origlat. and is added after ἐλευθερίᾳ (οὖν) by DbcKL etc. and probably syrpesh. Harcl., so Lightfoot. Hort thinks that τῇ is a primitive error for ἐπʼ, and that the ἐπʼ ἐλευθερίᾳ of Gal 5:13 is a reference to the true reading here.

στήκετε οὖν אABCG. οὖν is naturally omitted by Text. Rec. and also DKL etc.

1. τῇ ἐλευθερίᾳ κ.τ.λ. See notes on Textual Criticism.

I. In this verse St Paul clinches the argument of Gal 4:21-31 with a summary statement of doctrine, and a practical application. For, whatever the precise reading may be, the repetition of the catchword “freedom,” and of ἡμᾶς (which carries on the idea of τέκνα τ. ἐλ.) determines the connexion of the thought of the verse with the preceding passage rather than the following.

II. Accepting the W.H. text the construction of τῇ ἐλευθερίᾳ is not easy, (a) Lightfoot joins τῇ ἐλευθερίᾳ ᾖ … ἠλευθέρωσεν with Gal 4:31, but the sentence becomes very clumsy. (b) It can hardly be the Hellenistic method of expressing the emphatic “infinitive absolute” of the Hebrew with a finite verb (Luk 22:15), i.e. “Christ completely freed us,” for both the position of the words and the presence of the article forbid this, (c) It is probably “For freedom,” dat. comm. This would express what Hort thinks was the original reading, ἐπʼ ἐλευθερίᾳ, cf. Gal 5:13 (W.H. Notes, p. 122).

III. If ἦ ἐλευθερίᾳ be read we may join the clause (a) to Gal 4:31, setting a full stop at ἠλευθέρωσεν, or (b) to στήκετε if οὖν be omitted after that word.

IV. Field (Notes on the Translation of the N.T.) still prefers the Received Text (τῇ ἐλ. οὖν ᾗ κ.τ.λ.) according to which τῇ ἐλευθερίᾳ is taken with στήκετε, accounting for the absence of ἐν “by the noun τῇ ἑλευθερίᾳ standing at the head of a sentence, of which the writer had not forecasted the governing verb. Instead of στήκετε he might have used ἐπιμένετε.”

ἡμᾶς Χριστὸς ἠλευθέρωσεν So Rom 8:2. St Paul has not yet said in this Epistle that Christ set us free, though the thought is contained in Gal 3:25, Gal 4:2. Compare the prayer of Jonathan and the priests in 2Ma 1:27 ἐπισυνάγαγε τὴν διασπορὰν ἡμῶν, ἐλευθἐρωσον τοὺς δουλεύοντας ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν. See the note on ἑξαγοράσῃ Gal 4:5.

στήκετε οὖν. On στήκω see W.H. Notes, p. 169. A much stranger form derived from a perfect is ἐπεποίθησα, Job 31:24 (cf. Jdg 9:26 A; Zep 3:2 A). An example of the conative imperative (Moulton, Proleg., 1906, p. 125).

καὶ μὴ πάλιν. After your past experience (Gal 4:9)!

ζυγῷ δουλείας. As ζυγῷ is defined by δουλείας the idiomatic English translation is doubtless “the yoke of bondage,” not “a yoke” etc. For both the words and the thought in physical bondage see 1Ti 6:1, the only other passage where ζυγός is found in St Paul’s writings. Compare too Act 15:10. Luther, perhaps not unfairly, draws out the metaphor to a point beyond St Paul’s, “For like as oxen do draw in the yoke with great toil, receive nothing thereby but forage and pasture, and, when they be able to draw the yoke no more, are appointed to the slaughter: even so they that seek righteousness by the law, are captives and oppressed with the yoke of bondage, that is to say, with the law: and when they have tired themselves a long time in the works of the law with great and grievous toil, in the end this is their reward, that they are miserable and perpetual servants.”

ἐνέχεσθε, “entangled,” A.V. and R.V., but this is to introduce the notion of a net, or at least a cord tied several times, which is neither in this nor the preceding words. You are in danger of being held in, fastened and restrained, by the yoke. Contrast ἐμπλέκεται, 2Ti 2:4. St Paul employs ἐνέχειν here only, cf. however W. H. marg. in 2Th 1:4. Compare 3Ma 6:10 εἰ δὲ ἀσεβείαις κατὰ τὴν ἀποικίαν ὁ βίος ἡμῶν ἐνέσχηται. For examples in the papyri see Moulton and Milligan (Expositor, VII. 7, 1909, p. 283).

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5:1-12.] De W. calls this the peroration of the whole second part of the Epistle. It consists of earnest exhortation to them, grounded on the conclusion of the foregoing argument, to abide in their evangelical liberty, and warning against being led away by the false teachers.

1.] It is almost impossible to determine satisfactorily the reading (see var. readd.). In the fourth Edition I adopted that in the text, as being best attested by the most ancient authorities. With liberty did Christ make you free (i.e. ἐλεύθεροι is your rightful name and ought to be your estimation of yourselves, seeing that ἐλευθερία is your inheritance by virtue of Christ’s redemption of you).

Stand fast, therefore (reff. στήκω is unknown in classical Greek), and be not again (see note on ch. 4:9: in fact, the whole world was under the law in the sense of its being God’s only revelation to them) involved (reff.) in the yoke of bondage (better than ‘a yoke;’ an anarthrous noun or personal pronoun following another noun in the genitive often deprives that other noun of its article: e.g., τίς ἔγνω νοῦν κυρίου; 1Co 2:16: see numerous instances in Son 5:1. Cf. Winer, § 19. 2, most of whose examples however are after prepositions. [See also Moulton, p. 155, note 6.] Wetst. quotes from Soph. Aj. 944, πρὸς οἷα δουλείας ζυγὰ χωροῦμεν).

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

IV. HORTATORY PORTION OF THE LETTER (5:1-6:10)

1. Exhortations directly connected with the doctrine of the letter (5:1-6:5)

(a) Appeal to the Galatians to stand fast in their freedom in Christ (5:1-12)

Having in 1:11-2:21 defended his own independent right to preach the gospel to the Gentiles uncontrolled by any others, even those who were apostles before him, and in chaps. 3, 4 having answered the arguments of his opponents in favour of the imposition of legalism upon Gentile Christians, the apostle now passes to fervent exhortation of his readers not to surrender the freedom which they have in Christ Jesus.

1With this freedom Christ set us free: stand, therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage. 2Behold, I, Paul, say to you that if ye shall be circumcised, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3And I protest again to every man that receiveth circumcision that he is bound to do the whole law. 4Ye have severed your relation to Christ, ye who are seeking to be justified in law. Ye have fallen away from grace. 5For we, by the Spirit, by faith, wait for a hoped-for righteousness. 6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love. 7Ye were running well; who hindered you from obeying truth? 8This persuasion is not from him that calleth you. 9A little leaven is leavening the whole lump. 10I have confidence, in the Lord, respecting you that ye will take no other view than this; but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whoever he may be. 11And I, brethren, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? Then is the stumbling-block of the cross done away with. 12I would that they who are disturbing you would even have themselves mutilated.

1. τῇ ἐλευθερίᾳ ἡμᾶς Χριστὸς ἠλευθέρωσεν· στήκετε οὖν καὶ μὴ πάλιν ζυγῷ δουλείας ἐνέχεσθε. “With this freedom Christ set us free: stand, therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage.” With this reading of the text (see textual note below) these words are not to be attached to 4:31 (so Zahn, e. g., reading ᾗ ἐλευθερίᾳ), but constitute an independent sentence in which, the allegory of 4:21-31 being left behind, the apostle expresses himself in language akin to that of 4:4-11. The sentence, without connective particle οὖν or γάρ to mark its relation to what precedes, constitutes a transition paragraph of itself, on the one side a summary of 4:21-31 (but without its allegorical terminology) if not also of chaps. 3, 4 as a whole, and on the other an introduction to the exhortations of chap. 5. The article before ἐλευθερίᾳ is restrictive, referring to that freedom from the law with which the whole epistle from 2:1 on has dealt; see esp. 3:23-25, 4:9, 31. On Χριστὸς ἠλευθέρωσεν cf. for substance of thought 3:13, 4:4. The sentence is, in fact, an epitome of the contention of the whole letter.

The variations of the textual evidence are so complex as to make clear exposition of them difficult. The chief variations may be set forth as follows:

I. Respecting the words immediately accompanying ἐλευθερίᾳ:

1. τῇ ἐλευθερίᾇ (without ᾗ following): אABCD*HP 31, 33, 442, al. Sah. Arm. Syr. (harcl.) Euthal. Thrdt. Dam.; τῇ γὰρ ἐλ.: Boh.; ἐν τῇ: Chr.

1. ἐλευθερ. ἡμᾶς Χρ.: א*ABDFGP 31, 33, 327, 2125, some mss. of the Vulg. Goth. Cyr. Dam.

1. After ἐλευθερίᾳ: CcKL and many cursives, Marc. Dam. Thphyl. Oec.

1. There is no sufficient warrant in the usage of the period for taking ἵνα in a purely ecbatic sense, and ἵνα … ποιῆτε as a clause of actual result. Nor can this clause be regarded as a clause of conceived result (BMT 218), since the principal clause refers not to a conceived situation (denied to be actual, as in 1Th 5:4, or asked about as in Joh 9:2, or affirmed as necessary as in Heb 10:36), but to one directly and positively affirmed. Nor are any of the other sub-telic usages of ἵνα clauses possible here; apparently it must be taken as purely telic. This fact forbids taking ἃ ἐὰν θέλητε as referring to the things which one naturally, by the flesh, desires, and understanding the clause as an expression of the beneficent result of walking by the Spirit. Cf. also Rom 7:15, where similar language is used of a state regarded as wholly undesirable.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In the former part of this chapter the apostle cautions the Galatians to take heed of the judaizing teachers, who endeavoured to bring them back under the bondage of the law. He had been arguing against them before, and had largely shown how contrary the principles and spirit of those teachers were to the spirit of the gospel; and now this is as it were the general inference or application of all that discourse. Since it appeared by what had been said that we can be justified only by faith in Jesus Christ, and not by the righteousness of the law, and that the law of Moses was no longer in force, nor Christians under any obligation to submit to it, therefore he would have them to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and not to be again entangled with the yoke of bondage. Here observe, 1. Under the gospel we are enfranchised, we are brought into a state of liberty, wherein we are freed from the yoke of the ceremonial law and from the curse of the moral law; so that we are no longer tied to the observance of the one, nor tied up to the rigour of the other, which curses every one that continues not in all things written therein to do them, Gal 3:10. 2. We owe this liberty to Jesus Christ. It is he who has made us free; by his merits he has satisfied the demands of the broken law, and by his authority as a king he has discharged us from the obligation of those carnal ordinances which were imposed on the Jews. And, 3. It is therefore our duty to stand fast in this liberty, constantly and faithfully to adhere to the gospel and to the liberty of it, and not to suffer ourselves, upon any consideration, to be again entangled in the yoke of bondage, nor persuaded to return back to the law of Moses. This is the general caution or exhortation, which in the following verses the apostle enforces by several reasons or arguments. As,

I. That their submitting to circumcision, and depending on the works of the law for righteousness, were an implicit contradiction of their faith as Christians and a forfeiture of all their advantages by Jesus Christ, Gal 5:2-4. And here we may observe, 1. With what solemnity the apostle asserts and declares this: Behold, I Paul say unto you (Gal 5:2), and he repeats it (Gal 5:3), I testify unto you; as it he had said, "I, who have proved myself an apostle of Christ, and to have received my authority and instructions from him, do declare, and am ready to pawn my credit and reputation upon it, that if you be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing, etc.," wherein he shows that what he was now saying was not only a matter of great importance, but what might be most assuredly depended on. He was so far from being a preacher of circumcision (as some might report him to be) that he looked upon it as a matter of the greatest consequence that they did not submit to it. 2. What it is which he so solemnly, and with so much assurance, declares; it is that, if they were circumcised, Christ would profit them nothing, etc. We are not to suppose that it is mere circumcision which the apostle is here speaking of, or that it was his design to say that none who are circumcised could have any benefit by Christ; for all the Old Testament saints had been circumcised, and he himself had consented to the circumcising of Timothy. But he is to be understood as speaking of circumcision in the sense in which the judaizing teachers imposed it, who taught that except they were circumcised, and kept the law of Moses, they could not be saved, Act 15:1. That this is his meaning appears from Gal 5:4, where he expresses the same thing by their being justified by the law, or seeking justification by the works of it. Now in this case, if they submitted to circumcision in this sense, he declares that Christ would profit them nothing, that they were debtors to do the whole law, that Christ had become of no effect to them, and that they were fallen from grace. From all these expressions it appears that thereby they renounced that way of justification which God had established; yea, that they laid themselves under an impossibility of being justified in his sight, for they became debtors to do the whole law, which required such an obedience as they were not capable of performing, and denounced a curse against those who failed in it, and therefore condemned, but could not justify them; and, consequently, that having thus revolted from Christ, and built their hopes upon the law, Christ would profit them nothing, nor be of any effect to them. Thus, as by being circumcised they renounced their Christianity, so they cut themselves off from all advantage by Christ; and therefore there was the greatest reason why they should stedfastly adhere to that doctrine which they had embraced, and not suffer themselves to be brought under this yoke of bondage. Note, (1.) Though Jesus Christ is able to save to the uttermost, yet there are multitudes whom he will profit nothing. (2.) All those who seek to be justified by the law do thereby render Christ of no effect to them. By building their hopes on the works of the law, they forfeit all their hopes from him; for he will not be the Saviour of any who will not own and rely upon him as their only Saviour.

II. To persuade them to stedfastness in the doctrine and liberty of the gospel, he sets before them his own example, and that of other Jews who had embraced the Christian religion, and acquaints them what their hopes were, namely, That through the Spirit they were waiting for the hope of righteousness by faith. Though they were Jews by nature, and had been bred up under the law, yet being, through the Spirit, brought to the knowledge of Christ, they had renounced all dependence on the works of the law, and looked for justification and salvation only by faith in him; and therefore it must needs be the greatest folly in those who had never been under the law to suffer themselves to be brought into subjection to it, and to found their hopes upon the works of it. Here we may observe, 1. What it is that Christians are waiting for: it is the hope of righteousness, by which we are chiefly to understand the happiness of the other world. This is called the hope of Christians, as it is the great object of their hope, which they are above every thing else desiring and pursuing; and the hope of righteousness, as their hopes of it are founded on righteousness, not their own, but that of our Lord Jesus: for, though a life of righteousness is the way that leads to this happiness, yet it is the righteousness of Christ alone which has procured it for us, and on account of which we can expect to be brought to the possession of it. 2. How they hope to obtain this happiness, namely, by faith, that is, in our Lord Jesus Christ, not by the works of the law, or any thing they can do to deserve it, but only by faith, receiving and relying upon him as the Lord our righteousness. It is in this way only that they expect either to be entitled to it here or possessed of it hereafter. And, 3. Whence it is that they are thus waiting for the hope of righteousness: it is through the Spirit. Herein they act under the direction and influence of the Holy Spirit; it is under his conduct, and by his assistance, that they are both persuaded and enabled to believe on Christ, and to look for the hope of righteousness through him. When the apostle thus represents the case of Christians, it is implied that if they expected to be justified and saved in any other way they were likely to meet with a disappointment, and therefore that they were greatly concerned to adhere to the doctrine of the gospel which they had embraced.

III. He argues from the nature and design of the Christian institution, which was to abolish the difference between Jew and Gentile, and to establish faith in Christ as the way of our acceptance with God. He tells them (Gal 5:6) that in Christ Jesus, or under the gospel dispensation, neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision. Though, while the legal state lasted, there was a difference put between Jew and Greek, between those who were and those who were not circumcised, the former being admitted to those privileges of the church of God from which the other were excluded, yet it was otherwise in the gospel state: Christ, who is the end of the law, having come, now it was neither here nor there whether a man were circumcised or uncircumcised; he was neither the better for the one nor the worse for the other, nor would either the one or the other recommend him to God; and therefore as their judaizing teachers were very unreasonable in imposing circumcision upon them, and obliging them to observe the law of Moses, so they must needs be very unwise in submitting to them herein. But, though he assures them that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision would avail to their acceptance with God, yet he informs them what would do so, and that is faith, which worketh by love: such a faith in Christ as discovers itself to be true and genuine by a sincere love to God and our neighbour. If they had this, it mattered not whether they were circumcised or uncircumcised, but without it nothing else would stand them in any stead. Note, 1. No external privileges nor profession will avail to our acceptance with God, without a sincere faith in our Lord Jesus. 2. Faith, where it is true, is a working grace: it works by love, love to God and love to our brethren; and faith, thus working by love, is all in all in our Christianity.

IV. To recover them from their backslidings, and engage them to greater stedfastness for the future, he puts them in mind of their good beginnings, and calls upon them to consider whence it was that they were so much altered from what they had been, Gal 5:7.

1. He tells them that they did run well; at their first setting out in Christianity they had behaved themselves very commendably, they had readily embraced the Christian religion, and discovered a becoming zeal in the ways and work of it; as in their baptism they were devoted to God, and had declared themselves the disciples of Christ, so their behaviour was agreeable to their character and profession. Note, (1.) The life of a Christian is a race, wherein he must run, and hold on, if he would obtain the prize. (2.) It is not enough that we run in this race, by a profession of Christianity, but we must run well, by living up to that profession. Thus these Christians had done for awhile, but they had been obstructed in their progress, and were either turned out of the way or at least made to flag and falter in it. Therefore,

2. He asks them, and calls upon them to ask themselves, Who did hinder you? How came it to pass that they did not hold on in the way wherein they had begun to run so well? He very well knew who they were, and what it was that hindered them; but he would have them to put the question to themselves, and seriously consider whether they had any good reason to hearken to those who gave them this disturbance, and whether what they offered was sufficient to justify them in their present conduct. Note, (1.) Many who set out fair in religion, and run well for awhile - run within the bounds appointed for the race, and run with zeal and alacrity too-are yet by some means or other hindered in their progress, or turned out of the way. (2.) It concerns those who have run well, but now begin either to turn out of the way or to tire in it, to enquire what it is that hinders them. Young converts must expect that Satan will be laying stumbling blocks in their way, and doing all he can to divert them from the course they are in; but, whenever they find themselves in danger of being turned out of it, they would do well to consider who it is that hinders them. Whoever they were that hindered these Christians, the apostle tells them that by hearkening to them they were kept from obeying the truth, and were thereby in danger of losing the benefit of what they had done in religion. The gospel which he had preached to them, and which they had embraced and professed, he assures them was the truth; it was therein only that the true way of justification and salvation was fully discovered, and, in order to their enjoying the advantage of it, it was necessary that they should obey it, that they should firmly adhere to it, and continue to govern their lives and hopes according to the directions of it. If therefore they should suffer themselves to be drawn away from it they must needs be guilty of the greatest weakness and folly. Note, [1.] The truth is not only to be believed, but to be obeyed, to be received not only in the light of it, but in the love and power of it. [2.] Those do not rightly obey the truth, who do not stedfastly adhere to it. [3.] There is the same reason for our obeying the truth that there was for our embracing it: and therefore those act very unreasonably who, when they have begun to run well in the Christian race, suffer themselves to be hindered, so as not to persevere in it.

V. He argues for their stedfastness in the faith and liberty of the gospel from the ill rise of that persuasion whereby they were drawn away from it (Gal 5:8): This persuasion, says he, cometh not of him that calleth you. The opinion or persuasion of which the apostle here speaks was no doubt that of the necessity of their being circumcised, and keeping the law of Moses, or of their mixing the works of the law with faith in Christ in the business of justification. This was what the judaizing teachers endeavoured to impose upon them, and what they had too easily fallen into. To convince them of their folly herein, he tells them that this persuasion did not come of him that called them, that is, either of God, by whose authority the gospel had been preached to them and they had been called into the fellowship of it, or of the apostle himself, who had been employed as the instrument of calling them hereunto. It could not come from God, for it was contrary to that way of justification and salvation which he had established; nor could they have received it from Paul himself; for, whatever some might pretend, he had all along been an opposer and not a preacher of circumcision, and, if in any instance he had submitted to it for the sake of peace, yet he had never pressed the use of it upon Christians, much less imposed it upon them as necessary to salvation. Since then this persuasion did not come of him that had called them, he leaves them to judge whence it must arise, and sufficiently intimates that it could be owing to none but Satan and his instruments, who by this means were endeavouring to overthrow their faith and obstruct the progress of the gospel, and therefore that the Galatians had every reason to reject it, and to continue stedfast in the truth which they had before embraced. Note, 1. In order to our judging aright of the different persuasions in religion which there are among Christians, it concerns us to enquire whether they come of him that calleth us, whether or no they are founded upon the authority of Christ and his apostles. 2. If, upon enquiry, they appear to have no such foundation, how forward soever others may be to impose them upon us, we should by no means submit to them, but reject them.

VI. The danger there was of the spreading of this infection, and the ill influence it might have upon others, are a further argument which the apostle urges against their complying with their false teachers in what they would impose on them. It is possible that, to extenuate their fault, they might be ready to say that there were but few of those teachers among them who endeavoured to draw them into this persuasion and practice, or that they were only some smaller matters wherein they complied with them - that though they submitted to be circumcised, and to observe some few rites of the Jewish laws, yet they had by no means renounced their Christianity and gone over to Judaism. Or, suppose their complying thus far was as faulty as he could represent it, yet perhaps they might further say that there were but few among them who had done so, and therefore he needed not be so much concerned about it. Now, to obviate such pretences as these, and to convince them that there was more danger in it than they were aware of, he tells them (Gal 5:9) that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump - that the whole lump of Christianity may be tainted and corrupted by one such erroneous principle, or that the whole lump of the Christian society may be infected by one member of it, and therefore that they were greatly concerned not to yield in this single instance, or, if any had done so, to endeavour by all proper methods to purge out the infection from among them. Note, It is dangerous for Christian churches to encourage those among them who entertain, especially who set themselves to propagate, destructive errors. This was the case here. The doctrine which the false teachers were industrious to spread, and which some in these churches had been drawn into, was subversive of Christianity itself, as the apostle had before shown; and therefore, though the number either of the one or the other of these might be but small, yet, considering the fatal tendency of it and the corruption of human nature, whereby others were too much disposed to be infected with it, he would not have them on that account to be easy and unconcerned, but remember that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. If these were indulged the contagion might soon spread further and wider; and, if they suffered themselves to be imposed upon in this instance, it might soon issue in the utter ruin of the truth and liberty of the gospel.

VII. That he might conciliate the greater regard to what he had said, he expresses the hopes he had concerning them (Gal 5:10): I have confidence in you, says he, through the Lord, that you will be none otherwise minded. Though he had many fears and doubts about them (which was the occasion of his using so much plainness and freedom with them), yet he hoped that through the blessing of God upon what he had written they might be brought to be of the same mind with him, and to own and abide by that truth and that liberty of the gospel which he had preached to them, and was now endeavouring to confirm them in. Herein he teaches us that we ought to hope the best even of those concerning whom we have cause to fear the worst. That they might be the less offended at the reproofs he had given them for their unstedfastness in the faith, he lays the blame of it more upon others than themselves; for he adds, But he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. He was sensible that there were some that troubled them, and would pervert the gospel of Christ (as Gal 1:7), and possibly he may point to some one particular man who was more busy and forward than others, and might be the chief instrument of the disorder that was among them; and to this he imputes their defection or inconstancy more than to any thing in themselves. This may give us occasion to observe that, in reproving sin and error, we should always distinguish between the leaders and the led, such as set themselves to draw others thereinto and such as are drawn aside by them. Thus the apostle softens and alleviates the fault of these Christians, even while he is reproving them, that he might the better persuade them to return to, and stand fast in, the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free: but as for him or those that troubled them, whoever he or they were, he declares they should bear their judgment, he did not doubt but God would deal with them according to their deserts, and out of his just indignation against them, as enemies of Christ and his church, he wishes that they were even cut off - not cut off from Christ and all hopes of salvation by him, but cut off by the censures of the church, which ought to witness against those teachers who thus corrupted the purity of the gospel. Those, whether ministers or others, who set themselves to overthrow the faith of the gospel, and disturb the peace of Christians, do thereby forfeit the privileges of Christian communion and deserve to be cut off from them.

VIII. To dissuade these Christians from hearkening to their judaizing teachers, and to recover them from the ill impressions they had made upon them, he represents them as men who had used very base and disingenuous methods to compass their designs, for they had misrepresented him, that they might the more easily gain their ends upon them. That which they were endeavouring was to bring them to submit to circumcision, and to mix Judaism with their Christianity; and, the better to accomplish this design, they had given out among them that Paul himself was a preacher of circumcision: for when he says (Gal 5:11), And I brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, it plainly appears that they had reported him to have done so, and that they had made use of this as an argument to prevail with the Galatians to submit to it. It is probable that they grounded this report upon his having circumcised Timothy, Act 16:3. But, though for good reasons he had yielded to circumcision in that instance, yet that he was a preacher of it, and especially in that sense wherein they imposed it, he utterly denies. To prove the injustice of that charge upon him, he offers such arguments as, if they would allow themselves to consider, could not fail to convince them of it. 1. If he would have preached circumcision, he might have avoided persecution. If I yet preach circumcision, says he, why do I yet suffer persecution? It was evident, and they could not but be sensible of it, that he was hated and persecuted by the Jews; but what account could be given of this their behaviour towards him, if he had so far symbolized with them as to preach up circumcision, and the observance of the law of Moses, as necessary to salvation? This was the great point they were contending for; and, if he had fallen in with them herein, instead of being exposed to their rage he might have been received into their favour. When therefore he was suffering persecution from them, this was a plain evidence that he had not complied with them; yea, that he was so far from preaching the doctrine he was charged with, that, rather than do so, he was willing to expose himself to the greatest hazards. 2. If he had yielded to the Jews herein, then would the offence of the cross have ceased. They would not have taken so much offence against the doctrine of Christianity as they did, nor would he and others have been exposed to so much suffering on the account of it as they were. He informs us (Co1 1:23) that the preaching of the cross of Christ (or the doctrine of justification and salvation only by faith in Christ crucified) was to the Jews a stumbling-block. That which they were most offended at in Christianity was, that thereby circumcision, and the whole frame of the legal administration, were set aside, as no longer in force. This raised their greatest outcries against it, and stirred them up to oppose and persecute the professors of it. Now if Paul and others could have given into this opinion, that circumcision was still to be retained, and the observance of the law of Moses joined with faith in Christ as necessary to salvation, then their offence against it would have been in a great measure removed, and they might have avoided the sufferings they underwent for the sake of it. But though others, and particularly those who were so forward to asperse him as a preacher of this doctrine, could easily come into it, yet so could not he. He rather chose to hazard his ease and credit, yea his very life itself, than thus to corrupt the truth and give up the liberty of the gospel. Hence it was that the Jews continued to be so much offended against Christianity, and against him as the preacher of it. Thus the apostle clears himself from the unjust reproach which his enemies had cast upon him, and at the same time shows how little regard was due to those men who could treat him in such an injurious manner, and how much reason he had to wish that they were even cut off.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

CHAPTER V.

The apostle exhorts the Galatians to stand fast in the liberty

of the Gospel, and not by receiving circumcision bring

themselves into a yoke of bondage, 1-4.

Shows the superior excellence of Christianity, 5, 6.

Mentions their former steadiness, and warns them against the

bad doctrine which was then preached among them, 7-9.

Expresses his confidence that they will yet return; and shows

that he who perverted them shall bear his own punishment,

10-12.

States that they are called to liberty, and that love is the

fulfilling of the law, 13, 14.

Warns them against dissensions, and enumerates the fruits of the

flesh, which exclude those who bear them from the kingdom of

God, 15-21.

Enumerates also the fruits of the Spirit, which characterize the

disciples of Christ, 22-24.

Exhorts them to live in the Spirit, and not provoke each other,

25, 26.

NOTES ON CHAP. V.

Verse 1. Stand fast therefore in the liberty] This is intimately connected with the preceding chapter: the apostle having said, just before, So then, brethren, we are not children of the bond woman, but of the free, immediately adds, Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. Hold fast your Christian profession; it brings spiritual liberty: on the contrary, Judaism brings spiritual bondage. Among the Jews, the Messiah's reign was to be a reign of liberty, and hence the Targum, on La 2:22, says: "Liberty shall be publicly proclaimed to thy people of the house of Israel, על יד משיחא al yad Mashicha, by the hand of the Messiah, such as was granted to them by Moses and Aaron at the time of the passover."

The liberty mentioned by the apostle is freedom from Jewish rites and ceremonies, called properly here the yoke of bondage; and also liberty from the power and guilt of sin, which nothing but the grace of Christ can take away.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

1. Stand fast therefore. After having told them that they are the children of the free woman, he now reminds them that they ought not lightly to despise a freedom so precious. And certainly it is an invaluable blessing, in defense of which it is our duty to fight, even to death; since not only the highest temporal considerations, but our eternal interests also, animate us to the contest. Many persons, having never viewed the subject in this light, charge us with excessive zeal, when they see us so warmly and earnestly contending for freedom of faith as to outward matters, in opposition to the tyranny of the Pope. Under this cloak, our adversaries raise a prejudice against us among ignorant people, as if the whole object of our pursuit were licentiousness, which is the relaxation of all discipline. But wise and skillful persons are aware that this is one of the most important doctrines connected with salvation. This is not a question whether you shall eat this or that food, — whether you shall observe or neglect a particular day, (which is the foolish notion entertained by many, and the slander uttered by some,) but what is your positive duty before God, what is necessary to salvation, and what cannot be omitted without sin. In short, the controversy relates to the liberty of conscience, when placed before the tribunal of God.

The liberty of which Paul speaks is exemption from the ceremonies of the law, the observance of which was demanded by the false apostles as necessary. But let the reader, at the same time, remember, that such liberty is only a part of that which Christ has procured for us: for how small a matter would it be, if he had only freed us from ceremonies? This is but a stream, which must be traced to a higher source. It is because

“Christ was made a curse, that he might redeem us from the curse of the law,” (Galatians 3:13;)

because he has revolted the power of the law” so far as it held us liable to the judgment of God under the penalty of eternal death; because, in a word, he has rescued us from the tyranny of sin, Satan, and death. Thus, under one department is included the whole class; but on this subject we shall speak more fully on the Epistle to the Colossians.

This liberty was procured for us by Christ on the cross: the fruit and possession of it are bestowed upon us through the Gospel. Well does Paul, then, warn the Galatians, not to be entangled again with the yoke of bondage, — that is, not to allow a snare to be laid for their consciences. For if men lay upon our shoulders an unjust burden, it may be borne; but if they endeavor to bring our consciences into bondage, we must resist valiantly, even to death. If men be permitted to bind our consciences, we shall be deprived of an invaluable blessing, and an insult will be, at the same time, offered to Christ, the Author of our freedom. But what is the force of the word again, in the exhortation, “and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage?” for the Galatians had never lived under the law. It simply means that they were not to be entangled, as if they had not been redeemed by the grace of Christ. Although the law was given to Jews, not to Gentiles, yet, apart from Christ, neither the one nor the other enjoys any freedom, but absolute bondage.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

V.

(1) Stand fast therefore.—The external evidence is very strong in favour of a different reading: With (or, perhaps, For) liberty did Christ make us free. Stand fast, then, and be not entangled, &c. There seems to be no sufficient reason why this should not be adopted.

In the liberty.—The best grammarians seem agreed to take this rather in the sense, for liberty; otherwise it would be tempting to explain it as an instance of the Hebraising construction which we find in Joh_3:29 : “Rejoice with joy” (Authorised version “rejoice greatly”). It would then mean: “with a system, or state, of freedom Christ freed us;” in other words: “placed us in a state of freedom, so that we are free.”

The yoke of bondage—i.e., the Judaising restraints and restrictions.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Stand fast therefore in the liberty,.... There is the liberty of grace, and the liberty of glory; the former of these is here meant, and lies in a freedom from sin; not from the indwelling of it, but from the dominion, guilt, and damning power of it; from the captivity and tyranny of Satan, though not from his temptations and insults; from the law, the ceremonial law, as an handwriting of ordinances, a rigid severe schoolmaster, and a middle wall of partition, and from all its burdensome rites and institutions; from the moral law as a covenant of works, and as administered by Moses; and from the curse and condemnation of it, its bondage and rigorous exaction, and from all expectation of life and righteousness by the deeds of it; but not from obedience to it, as held forth by Christ, and as a rule of walk and conversation; and from the judicial law, or those laws which concerned the Jews as Jews: moreover, this liberty lies in the free use of things indifferent, as eating any sort of food without distinction, so that it be done in faith, with thankfulness to God, in moderation, and with temperance, and so as that the peace and edification of fellow Christians are not hurt; also in the free use of Gospel ordinances, which they that are fellow citizens with the saints have a right unto, but not to lay aside or neglect at pleasure; which is not to use, but to abuse their liberty: again, another branch of it is access to God, with freedom and boldness at the throne of grace, through the Mediator, under the influences of the divine Spirit; to which may be added, a deliverance from the fears of death corporeal, who is a king of terrors to Christless sinners, and which kept Old Testament saints, all their lifetime subject to bondage and eternal, or the second death, by which Christ's freemen are assured they shall not be hurt: now, in this liberty, the children of the free woman, believers under the Gospel dispensation, are very pertinently exhorted to stand fast, in consequence and consideration of their character; that is, they should highly prize and esteem it, as men do their civil liberty; and maintain it and defend it, at all hazards; abide by the doctrine of it without wavering, and with intrepidity; not giving up anyone part of it, however, and by whomsoever, it may be opposed, maligned, and reproached; and keep up the practice of it, by obeying from the heart the doctrine of it, by becoming the servants of righteousness, by frequent attendance at the throne of grace, and continual observance of the ordinances of Christ; and then should take heed of everything that tends to break in upon it, as any doctrine or commandment of men; particularly the doctrine of justification by works, and all sorts of superstition and will worship: and the rather, because of the concern Christ has in this liberty, it is that

wherewith Christ hath made us free; we are not free born, but on the contrary homeborn slaves, as Ephraim was; nor could this liberty in any of its branches be obtained by us, by any merit, righteousness, act, or acts of ours, but is wholly of Christ's procuring for us, both by price and power; whereby he has ransomed and delivered us out of the hands of all our spiritual enemies, sin, Satan, the law, and death; and it is of his proclaiming in the Gospel, and of his applying by his Spirit, whom he sends down into our hearts as a free Spirit, to acquaint us with it, and lead us into it, who works faith in us to lay hold upon, and receive this blessing of grace as others:

and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. The metaphor is taken from oxen put under a yoke, and implicated with it, from which they cannot disengage themselves: some of the members of this church had been Jews, who had formerly been under the yoke of the law, and seemed desirous to return to their former state of bondage, from which the apostle dissuades, and therefore uses the word again: or else he may refer to the bondage of corruption and idolatry, which they as Gentiles were in, before their conversion; and intimates, that to give into the observance of; Jewish rites and ceremonies would be involving themselves in a state of bondage again; for by "the yoke of bandage" he means the law, which the Jews frequently call "the yoke of the commandments" (l); particularly the ceremonial law, as circumcision; which Peter, Act 15:10 represents as a yoke intolerable; the observation of days, months, times, and years; the multitude of sacrifices, and which could not take away sin; but proclaimed their guilt and obligation to punishment, and were an handwriting of ordinances against them, and thereby they were held and kept in bondage, and such a yoke is the moral law as delivered by Moses, requiring perfect obedience, but giving no strength to perform, nor pointing where any is to be had; showing a man his sin and misery, and so working wrath in his conscience, but giving not the least intimation of a Saviour, or of life and righteousness by another; accusing, pronouncing guilty, cursing, and condemning; hence such as seek for righteousness by it are in a miserable subjection to it, and are sadly implicated and entangled with the yoke of it: every doctrine and ordinance of men is a yoke of bondage which should not be submitted to; nay, any action whatever, performed in a religious way and in order for a man's acceptance with God, and to obtain his favour, and according to his observance of which he judges of his state, and speaks peace and comfort to himself, or the reverse, is a yoke of bondage: as, for instance prayer at such and so many times a day, reading such a number of chapters in the Bible every day, fasting so many times in the week, and the like; so that what are branches of Christian liberty, such as frequent prayer to God, reading the sacred writings for instruction and comfort, and the free use of the creatures, are turned into a yoke of bondage, which should be guarded against.

(l) Misn. Beracot, c. 2. sect. 2. T. Hieros. Beracot, fol. 4. 2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Ver. 1. Be not again entangled] ενεχεσθε. As oxen tied to the yoke. Those that followed Judas Galileus, Act 5:37, chose rather to undergo any death than to be in subjection to any mortal. (Joseph. xviii. 2.) If civil servitude be so grievous, what ought spiritual to be? Those poor misled and muzzled souls that are held captive in the pope’s dark dungeon, have an ill time of it. Ever since, being reconciled to the Roman Church, I subjected myself and my kingdoms (said King John of England) to the pope’s authority, never anything went well with me, but all against me, Nulla mihi prospera, sed omnia adversa evenerunt.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Stand fast, therefore - Be firm and unwavering. This verse properly belongs to the previous chapter, and should not have been separated from it. The sense is, that they were to be firm and unyielding in maintaining the great principles of Christian liberty. They had been freed from the bondage of rites and ceremonies; and they should by no means, and in no form, yield to them again.

In the liberty ... - Compare Joh 8:32, Joh 8:36; Rom 6:18; Notes, Gal 4:3-5.

And be not entangled again - Tyndale renders this, “And wrap not yourselves again.” The sense is, do not again allow such a yoke to be put on you; do not again become slaves to any rites, and customs, and habits.

The yoke of bondage - Of servitude to the Jewish laws; see the note at Act 15:10.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Be not held again under the yoke of bondage, of the old law. (Witham) --- This verse must be understood in the same manner as the 9th verse of the preceding chapter. See the annotations upon it.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The

liberty here spoken of, is a right which a person hath to action, that he may do or forbear the doing of things at his pleasure, as he apprehends them suitable or not, without the let or hinderance of another. This is either in things of a civil nature, or of a spiritual nature. The former is not understood here, for it is none of

the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, for subjects to be free from the lawful commands of princes, or children to be free from the laws of their parents, or servants to be free from the commands of masters. There is hardly any book in the New Testament wherein obedience of this nature, in things that are lawful, is not either exemplified as our duty in Christ and the apostles, or urged by very strong arguments. The liberty here, is that freedom from the law, of which the apostle hath been speaking all along this Epistle: from the curse of the moral law, and from the co-action of it; and principally from the ceremonial law contained in ordinances. This is the liberty which Christ hath purchased for us, and in which the apostle willeth all believers to stand fast; not being again entangled with a yoke, which God had taken off from their necks. The apostles, in their synod, Act 15:10, had called it a yoke, which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Nature of Christian Liberty

1-12. The futility of seeking justification by attempting to comply with the demands of the Mosaic Law; the inconsistency of works and faith as methods of salvation.

Paraphrase. '(1) Since Christ has freed us from the necessity of obeying these legal demands and customs, let us consistently maintain and use our liberty. (2) To receive circumcision as necessary to salvation is to renounce allegiance to Christ, (3) since submission to this rite commits one to the observance of the whole legal system. (4) In taking such a step you would be repudiating the free grace of God; (5) for it is through the operation of the Holy Spirit, not through symbols in our flesh, and in consequence of our faith in Christ and not of works we perform, that we hope for justification before God. (6) Circumcision is wholly unimportant; the only condition of salvation is a faith which evinces its vital power in love. (7) You were making good progress in the Christian life; who has misled you into disloyalty to the gospel? (8) This teaching by which you have been led astray is not of God; (9) and though it has so far done only a little mischief, it will spread like leaven. (10) I have good hope, however, that you will now heed my exhortation; but the leader of this sedition will receive a heavy punishment. (11) As for the accusation that I myself sometimes commend circumcision, were that the case would the Jews still persecute me? If that were true I should no longer be giving them offence through my preaching of the crucified Christ as the author of salvation. (12) But enough! I wish that these men who are perverting your faith by insisting upon circumcision would mutilate themselves completely.'

1. Connected closely with preceding section.

Bondage] to legal observances. Christ hath made us free] by fulfilling the Law, and so teaching us to obey it, not in the letter but in the spirit, which we shall do best by living by faith in Him, and having the same mind in us as was also in Him cp. Mat_5:17-48.

2. Be circumcised] RV 'Receive circumcision' as essential to salvation. Christ.. profit.. nothing] because you thereby reject Him as sole and sufficient Saviour.

3. Circumcision is the sign of the system of which it is a part, and its practice indicates that a complete observance of all the Law's requirements is obligatory.

4. Christ is become, etc.] RV 'Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified,' etc. By resorting to the Law for salvation, as if Christ were not sufficient, you are no longer Christ's people. Fallen, etc.] fallen down from the higher plane of grace upon the lower plane of Law. To us now the bondage of the Law has little meaning; but if we come into bondage to sin, we fall from grace as surely as did the Galatians. Christ has given us power to keep from the love of sin and to resist its power; He has liberated us from its bondage and given us the liberty of the Spirit; and it is ours to maintain that liberty, and not to return to the works of the flesh, which bring us to slavery.

5. The true mode of salvation, viz. by the agency of the Spirit, on condition of faith alone.

6. Availeth] for salvation. Faith which worketh] an active, energetic faith: cp. Jam_2:14-26.

7. Run well] before the Judaisers misled you. Who did hinder] a rhetorical question.

8. Cometh] RV 'came' This dissuasion from loyalty to Christ to which you have yielded does not emanate from God, but is contrary to His will.

9. A little leaven] It would seem that only a few of the Galatian converts were affected by the false teaching; but their influence would soon prove farreaching and pernicious: cp. 1Co_15:33; Leaven is always used in NT. as a symbol of influence. Our Lord uses it to illustrate the influence of the kingdom of God (Mar_8:15 and parallels). St. Paul uses it to describe the penetrating and poisonous power of evil influence: cp. 1Co_5:6-7, 1Co_5:8.

10. The Apostle now adopts a more hopeful tone, and turns from reproof to encouragement. None otherwise minded] than as I have taught you.

11. Then is the offence of the cross ceased] RV 'then has the stumbling-block of the cross been done away.' The Judaisers who had 'troubled' the Galatians had evidently brought against the Apostle the charge that he still preached circumcision himself, although he had dispensed with it in the case of the Galatians. The accusation may have been based on the fact mentioned in Act_16:3, that on his second visit to Galatia he had circumcised Timothy at Lystra: see on Gal_2:3. He shows that this accusation is inconsistent with the other charge of abolishing the Law, for which they constantly attacked him. If he preached circumcision, why did they persecute him?

12. Were even cut off] RV 'would even cut themselves off,' RM 'would even mutilate themselves'; i.e. would even go beyond circumcision, like the priests of Cybele, whom the Galatians had formerly worshipped. A bitterly satirical wish. The Apostle was evidently carried away by his righteous wrath at the bitterness of the Judaisers.

13-15. Freedom from the requirements of the Law does not mean disobedience to its spirit, which is that of love to others.

Paraphrase. '(13) Cling, then, to your freedom from legal rules and customs; but remember that freedom means not licence, but loving service. (14) For love is the essence of God's Law, (15) whereas mutual backbiting and hatred can only end in the destruction of one another's spiritual life.'

13. A caution against an easy and common misunderstanding of Christian freedom: cp. Rom_6:15.

14. The real moral substance of the Mosaic Law was the gospel principle of love: cp. Mat_22:40; Rom_13:10.

15. Bite and devour] in party strife. Consumed] as respects your personal and collective Christian life.

16-26. The spiritual and the carnal life contrasted.

Paraphrase. '(16) In the life which is fostered by the Spirit you will find your true safety against the evils of which I am warning you. (17) For between the pure aspirations of the Spirit and the sinful impulses of the flesh there is a sharp, irrepressible conflict. (18) If you live under the influence of the Spirit of God, you have no need to seek the guidance of law. (19-20) Contrast the sins which spring from the carnal impulses (21-24) with the virtues which spring from the Spirit's guidance. The former exclude from God's kingdom; the Christian must abjure them; but the latter are not condemned by any law. (25) If, then, we possess the Spirit in our hearts, let our outward action be under His guidance, and (26) let us avoid factious boasting and all attempts to incite others to rivalry and jealousy.'

16. The Spirit] the sanctifying Spirit of God. Shall not fulfil] because the Spirit and the flesh are contrary principles. The flesh] a general name for the sinful impulses.

17. The carnal desires are opposed to the Spirit, and the impulses from the Spirit are contrary to these desires.

18. Not under the law] Those who live under the guidance of the Spirit of God are in no need of the Law. They do what is right not because the Law commands it, or because the Law penalises wrong-doing, but because they live under the influence of Christ and have His Spirit in them; e.g. they refrain from injuring others not because the Law says 'Thou shalt not kill,' but because they love their neighbours in the Spirit of Christ. And so, for the ideal Christian who is perfectly changed into Christ's likeness, the Law might just as well not exist, for he has no need of it.

19-21. Works of the flesh include not merely carnal sins, such as the first three in the list, but evil passions like strife and jealousy and their social effects, such as factions and divisions.

22, 23. Against such (virtues) there is no law] hence there can be no condemnation for those who possess them. But even the Law condemns the works of the flesh.

24. Have crucified] in the act of uniting themselves to Christ by faith: cp. Gal_2:20; Rom_6:2.

25. The inner life should rule the outer life.

26. Vainglory] indulging in rivalry and jealousy. Provoking] to strifes of opinion. Envying] cherishing grudges.

J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1. Therefore—The separation of this verse from the last chapter is unfortunate, as this therefore closely connects it therewith. Ye are free sons of the free, stand fast therefore in freedom.

Liberty—From the old ritualism. It is not the high freedom from sin, guilt, and depravity, wrought by Christ, which is here specified; but the emancipation from old Judaism. This verse is perplexed with various readings, yielding slightly different meanings. With liberty Christ has made us free, stand fast therefore. Or, unto or for freedom Christ has made us free. Neither of these is to be preferred to the received translation. Stand fast.—Opposed both to being moved and to bowing down. Keep both a firm position and an erect attitude; firm, as not being displaced by the onset of your assailants; erect, as not bowing to their yoke.

Yoke—Like bondwoman in Gal_4:30, is without the definite article. The Galatians had been mostly Gentiles; yet St. Paul’s again implies that their fall into a Judaism is simply a relapse into a ritualism now null, and essentially to be identified with the heathen ritualism they had left. Note, Gal_4:31. Dead Judaism and ethnicism are equally Christless. And that—the conclusion and seal of the whole argument—is the basis of the following closing exhortation.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ver. 1.

The importance of standing by Christian liberty.

firm, therefore, in the liberty for which Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." The apostle hopefully assumes that the Galatians had not yet surrendered their liberty.

I JUDIASM WAS A YOKE OF BONDAGE. It might well be described in such terms by the Apostle Peter at an earlier period. (Act_15:10) The bondage consisted in the number, complexity, and variety of its rites and ceremonies, associated with days, and weeks, and months, and years; in the burdensome repetition of sacrifices; in the expensiveness of the old ritual; in the time and labour consumed in purifications and washings; and in the place which every trivial or important transaction of life, such as marriage, burial, ploughing, sowing, reaping, held in the religious economy of a theocratic people. The Gentiles in Galatia had had experience of the degrading yoke of heathen bondage. Were they to be "entangled again" with a yoke, even that of Judaism?

II THE LIBERTY WON BY CHRIST. The liberty here referred to is exemption from the rites and requirements of the ceremonial Law, including circumcision itself. But that liberty implies a great enlargement in Christian blessing.

1. It sets the believer free from the terrors of the old economy. "We have received, not the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the spirit of adoption." Christ has freed us from many fears that must have marred the peace of Old Testament saints.

2. He destroys the physical drudgery of religion. His yoke is easy as his burden is light.

3. His liberty lifts us out of the state of spiritual childhood in which the Jews dwelt, that we may have a larger comprehension of the mysteries of the kingdom. (Heb_6:2)

III THE IMPORTANCE OF STANDING BY OUR NEWLY ACQUIRED LIBERTY.

1. It would be an insult to Christ, who bought it, if his followers were to surrender it.

2. A man may bear an unjust burden, but not a burden upon conscience.

3. It is our interest to stand in the full liberty of the gospel. "As free, yet not using our liberty as a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of. (1Pe_2:16)

4. Our firmness will encourage others to a resolute assertion of Christian liberty against all sorts of ritualistic priesthoods.

HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY

Ver. 1.

Christian freedom.

St. Paul concludes the arguments and expostulations of the two previous chapters with a vigorous exhortation. This has, of course, its special application to the condition of the Galatian Churches, and the liberty to which it directly applies is deliverance from the bondage of Law. But it admits of wider application to the circumstances of our own day. We have here brought before us a privilege, a danger, and a duty.

I A PRIVILEGE. Christ confers freedom. (see Joh_8:36)

1. Religious freedom.

1. From servile terrors of superstition;

2. from priestly tyranny;

3. from mechanical ritual;

4. from external constraints in moral and religious life; and

5. from the rule of the flesh over the spirit.

1. Intellectual freedom. Unbelievers sometimes arrogate to themselves the proud title of free-thinkers; yet it would seem too often that the only freedom they allow is freedom for expressing ideas with which they sympathize. The bigotry of Roman Catholic intolerance seems likely to be equalled by the bigotry that many leading opponents of Christianity show towards those who decline to abandon their faith. It is Christ who breaks the fetters of the mind. The Christian dares to think. The grounds of this liberty are

1. loyalty to truth, and faith in its ultimate triumph;

2. light and power to attain truth.

1. Political freedom. This is the outgrowth of Christianity

1. through the spread of the spirit of universal brotherhood, and

2. through the cultivation of conscience which makes the gift of liberty safe.

II A DANGER. Christian freedom is in danger.

1. It is attacked from without. It has to face the assaults of the ambitious. There are always those who desire to exercise undue influence over others.

2. There is danger in officialism. The official appointed as a servant of the general body usurps the place of the master. The fable of the horse who invited a man to ride him is thus often exemplified.

3. It is undermined from within. The force of habit wears grooves that become deep ruts out of which we cannot stir. The dead hand lies heavy upon us. Creeds which were the expression of free thought contending in open controversy in one age become the bonds and fetters of a later age. Ritual, which palpitated with living emotion when it first joined itself naturally as the body to clothe the soul of worship, becomes fossilized, and yet it is cherished and venerated though it hangs about men"s necks as a dead weight. The very atmosphere of liberty is too bracing for some of us. It will not allow us to sleep. Therefore love of indolence is opposed to it.

III A DUTY. We are called to take a stand against all encroachments on our Christian freedom. Here is a call to Christian manliness. The freedom is given by Christ; but we are exhorted to maintain it. He fought to win it; we must fight to hold it. This is not a mere question of choice a matter only of our own inclination or interest; it is a solemn duty. We must stand firm for liberty on several accounts.

1. That we may not be degraded to servitude. It is a man"s duty not to become a slave because slavery produces moral deterioration.

2. That we may have scope for the unhampered service of God and man.

3. That we may hand down to generations following the heritage of liberty. Once lost it cannot be easily recovered. We owe to our descendants the duty of maintaining intact the entail of a grand possession which we received from our forefathers, and which was secured to them at great cost. W.F.A.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Stand fast therefore in the liberty - From the ceremonial law. Wherewith Christ hath made us - And all believers, free; and be not entangled again with the yoke of legal bondage.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

In this chapter the Apostle Paul presents the doctrine of Christian liberty in a final effort to persuade the Galatians to give up the nefarious doctrine of the false apostles. To accomplish his purpose he adduces threats and promises, trying in every way possible to keep them in the liberty which Christ purchased for them.

VERSE 1. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.

"Be steadfast, not careless. Lie not down and sleep, but stand up. Be watchful. Hold fast the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free." Those who loll cannot keep this liberty. Satan hates the light of the Gospel. When it begins to shine a little he fights against it with might and main.

What liberty does Paul mean? Not civil liberty (for which we have the government to thank), but the liberty which Christ has procured for us.

At one time the emperor was compelled to grant to the bishop of Rome certain immunities and privileges. This is civil liberty. That liberty exempts the clergy from certain public charges. Then there is also another kind of "liberty," when people obey neither the laws of God nor the laws of men, but do as they please. This carnal liberty the people want in our day. We are not now speaking of this liberty. Neither are we speaking of civil liberty.

Paul is speaking of a far better liberty, the liberty "wherewith Christ hath made us free," not from material bonds, not from the Babylonian captivity, not from the tyranny of the Turks, but from the eternal wrath of God.

Where is this liberty?

In the conscience.

Our conscience is free and quiet because it no longer has to fear the wrath of God. This is real liberty, compared with which every other kind of liberty is not worth mentioning. Who can adequately express the boon that comes to a person when he has the heart-assurance that God will nevermore be angry with him, but will forever be merciful to him for Christ’s sake? This is indeed a marvelous liberty, to have the sovereign God for our Friend and Father who will defend, maintain, and save us in this life and in the life to come.

As an outgrowth of this liberty, we are at the same time free from the Law, sin, death, the power of the devil, hell, etc. Since the wrath of God has been assuaged by Christ no Law, sin, or death may now accuse and condemn us. These foes of ours will continue to frighten us, but not too much. The worth of our Christian liberty cannot be exaggerated.

Our conscience must he trained to fall back on the freedom purchased for us by Christ. Though the fears of the Law, the terrors of sin, the horror of death assail us occasionally, we know that these feelings shall not endure, because the prophet quotes God as saying: "In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment: but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee." (Isa 54:8.)

We shall appreciate this liberty all the more when we bear in mind that it was Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who purchased it with His own blood. Hence, Christ’s liberty is given us not by the Law, or for our own righteousness, but freely for Christ’s sake. In the eighth chapter of the Gospel of St. John, Jesus declares: "If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." He only stands between us and the evils which trouble and afflict us and which He has overcome for us.

Reason cannot properly evaluate this gift. Who can fully appreciate the blessing of the forgiveness of sins and of everlasting life? Our opponents claim that they also possess this liberty. But they do not. When they are put to the test all their self-confidence slips from them. What else can they expect when they trust in works and not in the Word of God?

Our liberty is founded on Christ Himself, who sits at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. Therefore our liberty is sure and valid as long as we believe in Christ. As long as we cling to Him with a steadfast faith we possess His priceless gifts. But if we are careless and indifferent we shall lose them. It is not without good reason that Paul urges us to watch and to stand fast. He knew that the devil delights in taking this liberty away from us.

VERSE 1. And be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Because reason prefers the righteousness of the Law to the righteousness of faith, Paul calls the Law a yoke, a yoke of bondage. Peter also calls it a yoke. "Why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?" (Act 15:10.)

In this passage Paul again disparages the pernicious notion that the Law is able to make men righteous before God, a notion deeply rooted in man’s reason. All mankind is so wrapped up in this idea that it is hard to drag it out of people. Paul compares those who seek to be justified by the Law to oxen that are hitched to the yoke. Like oxen that toil in the yoke all day, and in the evening are turned out to graze along the dusty road, and at last are marked for slaughter when they no longer can draw the burden, so those who seek to be justified by the Law are "entangled with the yoke of bondage," and when they have grown old and broken-down in the service of the Law they have earned for their perpetual reward God’s wrath and everlasting torment.

We are not now treating of an unimportant matter. It is a matter that involves everlasting liberty or everlasting slavery. For as a liberation from God’s wrath through the kind office of Christ is not a passing boon, but a permanent blessing, so also the yoke of the Law is not a temporary but an everlasting affliction.

Rightly are the doers of the Law called devil’s martyrs. They take more pains to earn hell than the martyrs of Christ to obtain heaven. Theirs is a double misfortune. First they torture themselves on earth with self- inflicted penances and finally when they die they gain the reward of eternal damnation.

Martin Luther — Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1535), English translation by Theodore Graebner (Zondervan, 1939) — public domain (U.S. copyright not renewed). Text from a community e-Sword module.

Christian Liberty an incentive to Holiness of Life.

Christian liberty opposed to legal bondage:

v. 1. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

v. 2. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.

v. 3. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole Law.

v. 4. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the Law; ye are fallen from grace.

The concluding verse of chapter 4 is incidentally the transition to the hortatory part of the epistle. Because the Christians are not children of the bond-woman, but of the free, because they are no longer under the Law, but under grace, therefore they should remember: Unto freedom Christ has liberated us. Stand firmly, then, and be not held again in the yoke of bondage. Christ has redeemed us from the servitude of the Law by fulfilling the Law in our stead; the Law, therefore, as such has no power over us as believers, since we are not under the Law, but under grace, Rom 6:14. Ours is the true freedom of the children of God, who are not under the restraint of injunctions and prohibitions, but find their greatest joy in showing their appreciation of the liberty which has been given them by a life in accordance with the will of the Lord. The Gospel freedom in no way imposes upon us restrictions, since it is a gift unto faith. But since it is such a great blessing, a blessing, moreover, which men are ever endeavoring to take from us by every form of persecution, therefore it is necessary that we stand firm and unmovable lest someone ensnare us by enticing and plausible arguments and bring us into subjection again under the yoke of the Law.

With solemn emphasis Paul calls to the Galatians: Behold, I, Paul, say to you that, if you are circumcised, Christ will benefit you nothing. That was one of the objects of the Judaizing teachers, to introduce all the forms and ceremonies of the Jewish law into the Galatian congregations as obligatory and binding also under the new dispensation. And so the former sacrament of circumcision, now a mere rite and in itself pertaining to things indifferent, became a very serious matter indeed. To the Galatians that gave heed to the words of the false teachers and believed the rite essential for salvation, it was anything but a thing indifferent. They were placing their trust in a ceremony which Christ had abrogated by His fulfilling the Law; they sought righteousness and salvation in circumcision, and therefore rejected the merit of Christ. As a mere hygienic custom Paul would not have thought of rejecting the act of circumcision, but as a religious ceremony necessary for salvation he did reject it, most emphatically, telling the Galatians that under those circumstances the work of Christ no longer had any value for them.

And not only that, but, as Paul writes: I testify again to every person that is circumcised (namely, with the intention just indicated) that he is a debtor to the whole Law. The work and merit of Christ, on the one hand, and man’s own fulfillment of the Law, on the other, mutually exclude each other. If a man believed circumcision necessary for salvation, he thereby placed himself under the Law as a whole, laying himself under the obligation of fulfilling all its precepts, ordinances, and injunctions. He cannot evade the issue by stating that he wishes to accept only this one point; it is either all or nothing. All that are of the works of the Law are under the curse, chap. 3:14.

The consequence is: You are separated from Christ, as many as are justified by the Law; you are fallen away from grace. Paul uses strong language, but intentionally so. He applies the figure of a severance from the source of life and power, by which the severed members are made subject to death and destruction. By their course of seeking the righteousness before God by means of circumcision they had severed the connection, the fellowship, the union with Christ. Their sincere opinion as to being justified through the Law would avail them nothing; by this very means instead they had fallen away from grace, they had spoiled their own chance of salvation. "If you hold that by the observance of the Law you merit to be accounted righteous before God, Christ will profit you nothing; for what need of Christ have those who hold that they are righteous by their own observance of the Law? God has set forth Christ with the promise that on account of this Mediator, and not on account of our righteousness, He wishes to be propitious to us."

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gal 5:6

I. The first grand principle contained in these words is that faith working by love makes a Christian. (1) Religion is the harmony of the soul with God, and the conformity of the life to His law. (2) If we look backward from character and deed to motive, this harmony with God results from love becoming the ruling power of our lives. (3) The dominion of love to God in our hearts arises from faith.

II. The Apostle’s words affirm that in comparison with the essential faith all externals are infinitely unimportant.

III. There is a constant tendency to exalt these unimportant externals into the place of faith.

IV. When an indifferent thing is made into an essential, it ceases to be indifferent, and must be fought against. Whenever parties or Churches insist on external rites as essential or elevate any of the subordinate means of grace into the place of the one bond which fastens our souls to Jesus and is the channel of grace as well as the bond of union, then it is time to arm for the defence of the spirituality of Christ’s kingdom and to resist the attempt to bind on free shoulders the iron yoke. Let men and parties do as they like so long as they do not turn their forms into essentials. But "in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love."

A. Maclaren, Sermons in Manchester, 3rd series, p. 207.

Faith.

I. Faith is the foundation of the whole spiritual building, whereby we are built on Christ Jesus. It is the root of the whole spiritual life of grace, the ground whereon the soul rests securely, the beginning of our spiritual existence. Faith goes even before love in thought, but not in deed. It goes before love in thought, for we love because we believe, not believe because we love. To faith which loves things seen fade from sight: things heard fall dull upon the ear; it will be unmoved by all outward things, for it has an inward sight, and an inward hearing, and an inward touch, whereby it beholds Christ dying on the cross for love of us, and in the shadow of His cross feels itself protected and healed. The cross is not far off, not over the seas, in the Holy Land, nor removed by length of time. Faith sees it close at hand, and clasps it, and loves it, and is crucified on it to Him.

II. Love is in all true faith, as light and warmth are in the ray of the sun. So soon as faith is kindled in the heart, there is the glow of love, and both come from the same Sun of righteousness pouring in faith and love together into the heart, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. With the increase of love, faith increaseth. But love liveth by good works. Love cannot live torpidly. Even in human love, love which never did deeds of love would grow dull and die. We love those most to whom we do most good. Love is perhaps increased more by doing than by receiving good, at least by doing good out of the love of God. "Faith worketh" (literally "inworketh"; the word means, worketh in the very soul itself) "by love."

E. B. Pusey, Sermons from Advent to Whitsuntide, vol. ii., p. 1.

References: Gal 5:6.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvi., No. 1553; vol. xxix., No. 1750; vol. xxii., No. 1280; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxi., p. 251; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 92; J. Vaughan, Sermons, 8th series, p. 37; J. Clifford, The Dawn of Manhood, p. 152.

Gal 5:7

Spiritual Declension.

I. The first test to which we would bring the professing Christian who is anxious to determine whether he is ceasing to run well is that furnished by secret prayer and the study of God’s word. If any one is beginning to abbreviate the seasons of private devotion, reading a chapter or two less of the Bible, spending fewer moments in meditation, in self-examination, and in supplication for others and himself, and all not because he has less time at his disposal, but less will to devote to such occupations, let that man look at once to his state. He did run well; who has hindered him? But take other symptoms, equally decisive, though perhaps more easily overlooked. There is no feeling stronger in the genuine Christian than that of desire to promote God’s glory in the salvation of his fellow-men. But suppose him to become comparatively indifferent to the diffusion of the Gospel, who will say that there is no abatement of the running well? who will deny the spiritual declension?

II. Note the dangers of the state which is thus described. We cannot but suppose that the Spirit is more displeased when neglected by one on whom He has effectually wrought, than when resisted by another with whom He has striven in vain. And the lukewarm man is useless to himself and to others: to himself, for such a religion as his will never save him; to others, for such a religion will not enable him to be instrumental in the saving of his fellow-men. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."

H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1561.

I. Christendom is full of Christians with no outstanding sin nor yet with one grace; whose whole life is one blank; with whom man finds no fault, and in whom God finds no fruit; who day by day are gaining nothing, and so are day by day losing everything; on whom nothing makes any impression, because they have become dulled to all; unpained, but it is the painlessness of a mortified wound; undisturbed, but it is a death-sleep; in repose, because Satan is no longer restless when he has entered into the house whence he was cast out, and has taken up his abode there.

II. Others, again, lose grace, in that they expose themselves to the temptations of pleasure, wherein they before lost it. Sin finds entrance more easily where it has found it before. The will is weakest there, temptation strongest. People do not mean to fall into the sin of which they have repented, but tinder catches any spark. The soul which knows sin may be kindled by anything which recalls the past sin. It is an awful gift to have recovered grace; it is a precious mercy of God to be again entrusted with that grace which we had before forfeited, but the more precious it is, the more carefully it is to be guarded. Carelessness before a fall may be ignorance, passion, infirmity of nature; carelessness after you have been restored from falling is sin against light: it is to reject the mercy of God in Christ.

III. Another frequent cause of forfeiting the grace of God is that people think that it will abide with them as a matter of course, and are not watchful to retain it; and so, as a matter of course, they lose it. It is part of love to be watchful, not to do what Christ forbids, to be alive to every wile of Satan which might even for a moment separate us from the love of Christ.

E. B. Pusey, Parochial and Cathedral Sermons, 61.

References: Gal 5:7.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ix., p. 349; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 314; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 135. Gal 5:11.—J. G. Rogers, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvii., p. 22; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii., p. 93. Gal 5:11-26.—Ibid., vol. iii., p. 80. Gal 5:12.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 375. Gal 5:13.—E. Johnson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 324; D. Burns, Ibid., vol. xxv., p. 88; H. W. Beecher, Ibid., vol. xxx., p. 56; W. G. Horder, Ibid., vol. xxxiii., p. 24. Gal 5:13-18.—Ibid., vol. vi., p. 243. Gal 5:14.—H. W. Beecher, Ibid., vol. vii., p. 131. Gal 5:14-16.—Ibid., vol. x., p. 186. Gal 5:15, Gal 5:16.—H. Scott-Holland, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 284; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 156; J. Edmunds, Sixty Sermons, p. 359. Gal 5:16—H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Life of Duty, vol. ii. p. 121; C. Kingsley, Village Sermons, p. 43; S. Pearson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 139; H. S. Paterson, Ibid., vol. xv., p. 309; Phillips Brooks, Sermons, p. 353. Gal 5:16, Gal 5:17.—E. White, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 157; C. Kingsley, Town and Country Sermons, p. 422; F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. i., p. 263; T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. iv., p. 54.

Gal 5:17

The Conflict of the Christian Life.

Observe:—

I. The nature of the conflict. The struggle of the watchful, ever-lusting flesh against the spirit is a matter of the commonest Christian experience. The sense of obligation rouses the spirit of revolt; the knowledge that a thing is forbidden makes us covet it the more. But is it not also a matter of Christian experience that the spirit lusteth against the flesh? Victories that have not been secured by many an hour of thought and watching have been made ours in a flush of enthusiasm. The revolt against command is checked by the passion for submission. They are not altogether sad words in our text, "Ye cannot do the things that ye would," for again and again, when men have resolved upon some wickedness, when they have silenced their scruples and put down conscience, even in the act of executing their sinful purpose, the unquenchable spirit has been known to speak, making them ashamed of their baseness and folly, sending them fleeing from their sin to their Saviour.

II. The purpose of the conflict. Our text is one of those passages on which much light has been thrown by the progress of Greek scholarship since the translation of the Bible into English. Almost all the best commentators are agreed that it should be rendered, not "so that ye cannot," but "in order that ye may not," do the things that ye would. The conjunction is one most forcibly expressive of design; the opposition between the flesh and the spirit is intended by God. He permits the flesh to lust against the spirit; He inspires the lust of the spirit against the flesh, in order that we may not do whatever we may wish, and simply because we wish it. The victory God is giving us is not of reason over natural temperament nor of heart over head; it is the victory of the spirit over the flesh. The new Divine nature, having subdued all lustfulness, reigns supreme by heart and head, by sanctity of thought and impulse, of passion and resolve.

A. Mackennal, Christian World Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 264.

Gal 5:17

There are three senses in which these words may be taken (1) They may mean generally, There is a spirit in you ruling your whole mind and being; and to the sovereign power of that spirit you are in all things only a passive subject, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would; or (2) we may use them for humiliation and admonition. The nature which still remains in you is too strong to let you live up to all your higher aspirations: "so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." Or (3) if you are a child of God, a Spirit, a Holy Ghost, is in you, and the Spirit is too active and too strong to suffer you to follow your own worst will, so that, though you wish it, you cannot do the things that you would. I believe the last to be the true construing.

I. No one who knows anything of human nature or of his own heart can doubt for a moment that the ninth article of our Church is thoroughly and literally true, and that "the infection of nature doth remain, yea in them that are regenerated, whereby the lust of the flesh, called in the Greek phronema sarkos, which some do expound the wisdom, some sensuality, some the affection, some the desire of the flesh, is not subject to the law of God." The process of sanctification is not the extirpation of sin at all; it is the subjugation of sin. The Philistines are yet in the land, in their strongholds, though the land belong to the people of God.

II. The way to subdue sin is to introduce a master power. You will never actually destroy the wrong will; but you must neutralise it by another will. You must bring in and cultivate and enlarge the prohibitive and the preventive forces of the heart, till at last you would come to the state that "ye cannot do the things that ye would."

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 4th series, p. 212.

References: Gal 5:17.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 754; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 259; Homilist, 2nd series, vol. iii., p. 601; W. Landels, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 360. Gal 5:18.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 252. Gal 5:20.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 10. Gal 5:22.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 94; vol. iv., p. 124; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii., No. 1582; vol. xxx., No. 1782; Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 313; vol. xxxvi., p. 309; J. N. Norton, The King’s Ferry Boat, p. 15.

Gal 5:22, Gal 5:23.

The Fruits of the Spirit.

I. Every tree is known by its fruit. And just so it is with us. The Bible often speaks about men as trees. Our root is the heart; the heart is the root of every man and of every man’s life; and according then to what the heart is will be the life. Now what is the fruit of the Spirit? It is the fruit of a heart that has been renewed by the Spirit of God. God does not begin at the outside, at the circumference, but with the heart. He makes the acts and deeds right by making the heart right; He makes and keeps the tongue right by making the heart right. There is the difference between man’s way and God’s. Man begins at the outside, and tries to work towards the centre; God begins at once in the centre and in the heart, and by changing the heart He changes the life; and so Christ’s word to Nicodemus is Christ’s word to every man, "Ye must be born again."

II. Notice that in this particular list the fruits of the Spirit are dispositions. Paul in this particular passage is not dealing with actions, with deeds, but with dispositions—love, joy, and so on, till you come to meekness and temperance—dispositions, not activities. Then, further, he is not telling us of all the dispositions that result from the indwelling of the Spirit of God in our breasts, but only of some of them. We are taken by the Apostle into a particular sphere of life, and are shown what the dispositions are belonging to that sphere. He is referring to the Galatian Churches as communities of men and women associated together in the profession of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is taking us into the sphere of Christian fellowship and Christian intercourse; and the dispositions which he names are the dispositions produced by the Spirit among Christian men and women in their social intercourse one with another, in their Church fellowship and Church life.

J. Culross, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxx., p. 43.

The Fruit of the Spirit.

I. The Holy Spirit always clusters His work; one Christian virtue necessarily raises up another; there is no such thing as sanctification in a single point. But as one berry in a bunch of grapes cannot ripen but that the others ripen too, so it is with the Christian. Try to eradicate one sin of your character, and you will invariably find that in doing it you will weaken, if you do not pull up, another. Cultivate one good trait, and you will be surprised to find how many more seem to grow up, you scarcely know how, at its side. So that often this is the best way to carry on one’s own edification: to concentrate one’s prayers and self-discipline upon one particular point of attainment, not only because by that fixedness we shall best secure the growth and the attainment which we desire, but also because by cherishing that one excellence we shall promote all.

II. In the outer world, all the vicissitudes of the seasons and the weather go to make the harvest. Do you wonder in the spiritual husbandry, where such fruits as these have to be wrought, that there must be sometimes the bracing cold of a stern adversity, alternating with the warmer rays of summer hours? Can it be but that the sap of the Spirit shall be set free to flow by the winds which blow on us, and that we shall be cleansed by many a storm which is sent, for this very reason, to sweep over us? The wise man prayed that his soul might be subject to the changes of a moral atmosphere: "Awake, O north wind, and come, thou south; blow upon our garden, that the spices thereof may flow out." And then—the far end of all"—Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits."

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 5th series, p. 26.

References: Gal 5:22, Gal 5:23.—J. H. Thorn, Laws of Life after the Mind of Christ, 2nd series, p. 239; A. Murray, The Fruits of the Spirit, pp. 13-113; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. i., p. 164; Ibid., vol. xix., p. 169; Ibid., vol. xxix., p. 51. Gal 5:22-26.—Ibid., vol. vi., p. 83; R. W. Dale, Ibid., vol. xxxv., p. 116. Gal 5:24.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxi., No. 1239. Gal 5:25.—Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 262.

The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

As if he had said "Since Christ by his death had purchased our freedom from the yoke and bondage of the ceremonial law, let us resolutely stand fast in this our Christian liberty, without subjecting ourselves again to circumcision, and the observation of the Mosaic rites."

Here note, 1. The servile condition of the Jewish church: they were under bondage, under a yoke of bondage. This servitude of theirs consisted in the vast number of their religious rites and observances, as to days and weeks, months, and years; in the multitude of their sacrifices of all sorts, which they were obliged every day to offer: in their frequent purifications and washings; in the strict distinctions they were obliged to make between clean and unclean meats; in the numerous rites and ceremonies they are required to observe at their marriages and burials, at bed and board, at home and abroad, nay, even in plowing, sowing, and reaping; so numerous were these observances, that they took up half their time, and were as burdensome as they were numerous.

Well might the apostle here call it a yoke of bondage, and elsewhere, a yoke which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear. Act 15:10

Note, 2. The happy liberty and freedom from this intolerable yoke, purchased by Christ for the Christian church: Christ hath made us free. He by his obedience and death, has purchased this happy freedom for us, a freedom from ceremonial bondage, from sinful servitude and slavery; not from civil subjection, not from the yoke of new obedience, but from the obliging force of the ceremonial law, and the curse and irritating power of the moral law.

Note, 3. The Christians’ duty with reference to this privilege, namely, to stand fast in the liberty which Christ has purchased for them, without obliging themselves to observe any part of the ceremonial law, which was now a servility perfectly unprofitable, and nothing else: stand fast in it; that is, maintain and defend it both in judgment and practice.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage. [This verse continues the thought of the last chapter, and forms a connecting link between it and this section. It means that Christ made us free, not incidentally, but with the very design that we should cherish and enjoy our freedom, and we should therefore stand fast in it, and not return to bondage.]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Galatians Chapter 5

It is in this liberty, the liberty of Christ, alluding to the free woman and Jerusalem above, that they were to stand fast, and not put themselves again under the yoke of the law. If they took that ground they made themselves responsible to keep it personally and wholly, and Christ was of no effect to them. They could not rest upon the work of Christ for righteousness, and then hold themselves responsible to fulfil righteousness themselves according to the law. The two things contradict each other. Hence too it would be no longer grace on which they stood. They forsook grace, in order to satisfy the requirements of the law. This is not the Christian’s position.

Here is the Christian’s position. He does not seek for righteousness before God as a man who does not possess it; he is the righteousness of God in Christ, and Christ Himself is the measure of that righteousness. The Holy Ghost dwells in him. Faith rests in this righteousness, even as God rests in it, and this faith is sustained by the Holy Ghost, who turns the heart that is established in that righteousness towards the glory that is its recompense-a recompense which Christ enjoys already, so that we know what that righteousness deserves. Christ is in the glory due to righteousness, to the work which He accomplished. We know this righteousness in virtue of that which He has wrought, because God has owned His work and set Him at His right hand on high. The glory in which He is is His just reward, and the proof of that righteousness. The Spirit reveals the glory, and seals to us that righteousness on which faith builds. It is thus that the apostle expresses it: “We, through the Spirit, wait for the hope [the hoped-for glory] of righteousness by faith.” To us it is faith, for we have not yet the thing hoped for-the glory due to that righteousness which is ours. Christ possesses it, so that we know what we hope for. It is by the Spirit that we know it, and that we have the assurance of the righteousness which gives us the title to possess it. It is not righteousness we wait for, but, by the Spirit in faith, the hope that belongs to it. It is by faith; for in Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working by love. There must be a moral reality.

The apostle’s heart is oppressed at the thought of what they were rejecting, and the mischief this doctrine was doing. It overflows. In the midst of his argument he interrupts himself. “Ye did run well: who has hindered you from obeying the truth?” To be so easily persuaded of this Judaising doctrine, which was but a fatal error, was not the work of Him who had called them. It was not thus that through grace they had become Christians. A little leaven corrupted the whole.

Nevertheless the apostle regains his confidence by looking higher. By resting on the grace which is in Christ towards His own, he can re-assure himself with regard to the Galatians. He stood in doubt when he thought of them; he had confidence when he thought of Christ, that they would surely not be otherwise minded. Thus delivered from the evil by grace, as in the moral case of the Corinthians, he was ready to punish all disobedience, when all that knew how to obey had been brought fully back to obedience; so here also, every heart that was susceptible of the influence of the truth would be brought back to the power of the truth of Christ; and those who, active in evil, troubled them by false doctrine, those whose will was engaged in propagating error, should bear their burden. It is very beautiful to see the apostle’s uneasiness, when he thinks of men-the fruit moreover of his love for them-and the confidence which he regains as soon as he lifts up his heart to the Lord. But his abrupt style, his broken and unconnected words, shew how deeply his heart was engaged. The error that separated the soul from Christ was to him more terrible than the said fruits of practical separation. We do not find the same marks of agitation in the epistle to the Corinthians; here the foundation of everything was in question. In the case of the Galatians the glory of Christ the Saviour was at stake, the only thing that could bring a soul into connection with God; and on the other hand it was a systematic work of Satan to overthrow the gospel of Christ as needed for the salvation of men.

Here, interrupting himself, he adds, “And I, if I preach circumcision, why am I persecuted?” It will in fact be seen that the Jews were habitually the instigators of the persecution which the apostle suffered from the Gentiles. The spirit of Judaism, as has been the case in all ages, the religious spirit of the natural man, has been Satan’s great instrument in his opposition to the gospel. If Christ would put His sanction on the flesh, the world would come to terms and be as religious as you please, and would value itself upon its devotion. But in that case it would not be the true Christ. Christ came, a witness that the natural man is lost, wicked, and without hope, dead in his trespasses and sins; that redemption is necessary, and a new man. He came in grace, but it was because man was incapable of being restored; and consequently all must be pure grace and emanate from God. If Christ would have to do with the old man, all would be well; but, I repeat, He would no longer be Christ. The world then, the old man, does not endure Him. But there is a conscience, there is a felt need of religion, there is the prestige of an ancient religion held from one’s fathers; true perhaps in its original foundations, although perverted. Thus the prince of the world will use carnal religion to excite the flesh, the ready enemy, when once awakened, of the spiritual religion which pronounces sentence upon it.

It is only to add something to Christ. But what? If it is not Christ and the new man, it is the old man, it is sinful man; and, instead of a needed and accomplished redemption, and an entirely new life from above, you have a testimony that agreement between the two is possible; that grace is not necessary, except at most as a little help; that man is not already lost and dead in his trespasses and sins, that the flesh is not essentially and absolutely evil. Thus the name of Christ is made subservient to the flesh, which willingly adorns itself with the credit of His name, in order to destroy the gospel from its very foundations. Only preach circumcision, accept the religion of the flesh, and all difficulty will cease; the world will accept your gospel, but it will not be the gospel of Christ. The cross in itself (that is, the total ruin of man-man proved to be the enemy of God), and perfect finished redemption by grace, will always be a stumbling-block to one who desires to maintain some credit for the flesh. “Would to God,” says the apostle-for he sees the whole gospel falling into ruin before this device, and souls destroyed-”would to God that they who trouble you were cut off!” What have we seen since then? Where is the holy indignation of the apostle?

He then touches on the point of the practical consequences of this doctrine, and explains how the doctrine of perfect grace was connected, without the law, with a walk worthy of the people of God. Ye have then been called, he says, unto liberty: only use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh-which the flesh would readily do. God gave the law to convince of sin; the flesh would use it to work out righteousness. He acts in grace, that we may be above sin and outside its dominion: the flesh would use grace as an occasion to sin without restraint. The Christian, truly free from the yoke of sin, as well as from its condemnation (for Christ risen is his life as well as his righteousness, and the Spirit is the power and guide of his walk towards glory, and according to Christ), instead of serving his lusts, seeks to serve others, as free to do it in love. Thus the law itself is fulfilled, without our being under its yoke: for the whole practical law is summed up in this word: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

If, yielding to the flesh, and attacking those who were not circumcised, they devoured one another, they were to take heed that they were not consumed one of another. But the apostle would give something more positive. “This I say then,” he continues, after the interruption of his subject, “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” It is not by putting oneself under the law that one has power against sin. It is the Spirit (given in virtue of the ascension of Christ our righteousness, to the right hand of God) who is the Christian’s strength. Now the two powers, the flesh and the Spirit, are antagonistic. The flesh strives to hinder us when we would walk according to the Spirit, and the Spirit resists the working of the flesh to prevent it from accomplishing its will.[5] But if we are led of the Spirit, we are not under the law. Holiness, true holiness, is accomplished without the law, even as righteousness is not founded on it. ‘Nor is there any difficulty in judging between what is of the flesh and what is of the Spirit; the apostle enumerates the sad fruits of the former, adding the sure testimony that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. The fruits of the Spirit are equally evident in their character, and assuredly against such things there was no law. If we walk according to the Spirit, the law will find nothing to condemn in us. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh and its lusts. This is what they are, inasmuch as they are Christians; it is that which distinguishes them. If these Galatians really lived, it was in the Spirit: let them then walk in the Spirit.

Footnotes for Galatians Chapter 5

5: It is not “so that ye cannot,” but “in order that ye might not.”

John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1. Stand fast therefore. Compare Eph. 6:14; 2 Thess. 2:15. This verse is connected in meaning with the last chapter, where it is shown that the gospel is freedom, but the Mosaic law is the covenant of bondage. Hence Paul bids them to cling to their freedom in Christ, and not to be brought again under the yoke by being drawn under the Jewish law. Again. Once they had been under bondage to a heathen yoke (4:8); to accept the Jewish yoke would be a second bondage.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

Paul applies the allegory by reminding the believers to use their liberty in Christ because all the law is fulfilled in loving neighbors as ourselves.

For freedom Christ has set us free

"It is so that we can be free that Christ has set us free." It is implied that Christ sets believers free from the old covenant. Here freedom from the old covenant is a metaphor for not being obligated to obey it. AT: "Christ has set us free from the old covenant so that we might be free" or "Christ has set us free so that we might live as free poeple" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Metaphor)

Stand firm

Standing firm here represents being determined not to change. How they are not to change can be stated clearly. AT: "Do not give in to the arguments of people who teach something else" or "Be determined to stay free" (See: Metaphor and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

if you let yourselves be circumcised

Paul is using circumcision as a metonym for Judaism. AT: "if you turn to the Jewish religion" (See: Metonymy)

do not again be put under the control of a yoke of slavery

Here being under control of a yoke of slavery represents being obligated to obey the law. AT: "do not live like one who is under the control of a yoke of slavery to the law" (See: Metaphor and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

translationWords

free

Christ

yoke

Paul

circumcise

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

In the liberty wherewith. This is according to the reading th ejleuqeria h=. Different connections are proposed, as with stand fast, as A. V. : or with the close of chapter 4, as, "we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free with the freedom with which Christ freed us" : or, "of her who is free with the freedom with which," etc. But h= wherewith must be omitted. A new clause begins with th ejleuqeria. Rend. for freedom did Christ set us free. For, not with freedom. It is the dative of advantage; that we might be really free and remain free. Comp. verse 13, and Joh 8:36.

Made (us) free [ηλευθερωσεν] . With the exception of Joh 8:32, 36, only in Paul.

Stand fast [στηκετε] . Used absolutely, as 2Th 2:15. Mostly in Paul. See on 1Th 3:8. 8 0 Be not entangled [μη ενεχεσθε] . Or, held ensnared. By Paul only here and 2Th 1:4. Lit. to be held within. For an elliptical usage see on Mr 6:19.

Yoke [ζυγω] . Metaphorical, of a burden or bondage. Comp. Mt 11:29, 30; Act 14:10; 1Ti 6:1. Similarly LXX, Gen 27:40; Lev 26:13; 2Ch 10:4, 9, 10, 11, 14. So always in N. T. except Rev 6:5, where it means a pair of scales. See note, and comp. Lev 19:35, 36; Pro 11:1; Pro 16:11; Hos 12:7.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.